SUMMARY
A resumeof the history of the 151st Field Artillery Brigade during its short term at the front shows a great variety of services and connections.
Originally constituting a part of the Artillery of the Second Army, the Brigade was attached on its arrival in the zone of advance to the Second Colonial Corps of the French army in the Troyon sector, where it served under General Blondlat, Corps commander and General Jaquet, Chief of Artillery.
The Second Colonial Corps was relieved by the 17th French Corps, General Hellot commanding, General Walch, Chief of Artillery. On October 29th, the Brigade came under their command.
On November 13th the Brigade was assigned to the Fourth American Corps. When the Fourth Corps moved forward at 5.00 a. m., November 17th, the Brigade passed into the Second Army Reserve. When the regiments first came into the St. Mihiel sector, the infantry holding it were the 79th Division of the American Army, General Joseph E. Kuhn commanding; the 39th French Infantry Division and the 28th French Regiment of Dismounted Cavalry. On the 28th of October, however, the 79th was relieved by the 33rd American Division, General George Bell commanding.
The 39th French Infantry Division and the 28thregiment of Dismounted Cavalry were withdrawn and the sector of the 17th Corps was from Vigneulles to Bonzee.
The Corps Artillery, 151st Brigade and two batteries of French Artillery à Pied, covered the entire front of fifteen kilometres.
This is the story of our few days at the front before the Armistice, and this is what we did in the actual fighting.
I have been obliged for lack of space and knowledge to omit those things most interesting to the individual—little incidentals, perhaps from the point of view of the rest of us, but to him they constituted the war, and always will. For this reason they will remain forever vivid pictures in his memory and are therefore not necessary to chronicle. At the same time it will do no harm to recall a few more facts and feelings that all in one way or another experienced during that momentous although brief period of our lives. Mud is perhaps the foremost to the author. But there were others. At night there was not a light as we stumbled and cursed, feeling our way in those ruined villages; automobiles and trucks travelled similarly without lights in the jet blackness, sometimes on the road but more often off it. And the drivers, let us not forget them and their troubles: the sinking feeling in the region of the stomach as the truck, laden to its limitwith ammunition, would itself first sink and then stick in that sea of mud. Tired to the point of exhaustion, they would dig for hours and get out only to be in again a hundred yards down the road. Or perhaps Buddy, with his truck, would try to pull us out with the result that he too got stuck. Then there were the nights spent going into position where the impossible was often accomplished,—that was work such as few outside of the army will experience,—but it was exciting and it was necessary, and that explains how it was done. Following this were the nights spent in serving the guns,—sleepless nights,—but it was fun, and the excitement made it interesting. Last but not least, let us recall for a second, if we can, how it felt to be under fire,—but most of us were too busy and tired to have any feelings. Such as they were they were hardly pleasant.
While most of the Brigade was thus solving its troubles, the 3rd Battalion of the 303rd was having troubles of its own. Detached from the Brigade and assigned to the Fourth Corps on November 4th, they were ordered to take a position a thousand metres in front of the Seventy-fives and about the same distance behind our own front line. The terrain assigned them for their guns was a wooded swamp, perhaps a thousand metres from the road. It was down this road that they brought their guns under practically continuous enemy fire. Nor did the fire stop when they reached their positions. Just as regularly as the halfhours came around on the clock so did the Germans go the rounds of these two batteries and Battalion Headquarters with high explosive and gas. There were many narrow escapes but no serious casualties. The dispersion of the German guns and the regularity with which they fired were alone responsible, so say the Third Battalion. But I am inclined to think, in spite of German declarations of “Gott mit Uns”, that the Bon Dieu was on our side; for besides the elements above mentioned, practically every direct hit or what was so close as to amount to a direct hit, proved to be a dud. Of the labors involved in taking this position and the will that delivered the goods we cannot say enough. The job was done and done gloriously.
While the Brigade, minus one regiment, was disporting itself in and about St. Mihiel, that regiment, the 301st F. A. was ordered to another part of the front, November 2nd. Accordingly they went to Neufchateau near Chaumont, where they were to become a part of the Army Artillery for the 1st army. There they were held in reserve and obliged to wait for further orders, which did not come. Finally it was learnt that they were to move forward and take up positions about November 12th, but the Germans also hearing of this, signed the Armistice on the 11th. So it was that our lost regiment did not get into action. We sympathize with them, but we do not feel as they do, for we know the goods were there and given the opportunity, would have been delivered. On November29th they were ordered to prepare for return to the United States. Many miserable weeks followed at Brest, but finally, one glorious day, the Statue of Liberty appeared before them and January 6th, 1919, they landed in New York from the good ship “Nieuw Amsterdam”. In this the rest of the Brigade fared not so well.
Colonel Arthur Conklin
After the Armistice was signed, the regiments were withdrawn to billets and the materiel was parked. The 302nd returned to Rupt en Woevre, where they got busy on the famous show they produced a few weeks later. The 303rd were not as easily satisfied. They had some troops still in and about the positions,—some more at Creue, a lot more at Savannieres, and the 3rd Battalion which had rejoined the regiment was now at St. Christophe Ferme. Later, the First and Second Battalions moved to Troyon and the Third Battalion to Ambly, while regimental Headquarters was established at St. Mihiel.
While thus in billets there were many rumors, but they were mostly of “occupation” with the Third Army. The fact was, we were kept busy policing the villages and a good part of France. The part we got was not in the very best of order, so we had our hands full. At the same time it was not all work; the 302nd show took us out of the mud and gunk of the busted villages of France and dropped us temporarily in front of the foot-lights of Broadway. There were other bright spots but they were not the weather. Meantimewe waited for we knew not what. We got to know our French brothers in arms, and we sympathized with them for all they had lost. But they demanded our admiration even more than our sympathy. In the face of ruined homes and brothers lost, they could say: “C’est la guerre” and could sing with us the Marseillaise and Madelon:
Quand Madelon vient nous servir a boireSous la tonnelle au frole de son juponEt gue chaqu’un lui raconte une histoire,Une histoire a sa façonLa Madelon pour nous n’est pas sévèreLorsqu’on lui prend la taille ou le menton,Elle rit, c’est tous le mal qu’elle sait faire,Madelon,Madelon,Madelon.
Quand Madelon vient nous servir a boireSous la tonnelle au frole de son juponEt gue chaqu’un lui raconte une histoire,Une histoire a sa façonLa Madelon pour nous n’est pas sévèreLorsqu’on lui prend la taille ou le menton,Elle rit, c’est tous le mal qu’elle sait faire,Madelon,Madelon,Madelon.
Quand Madelon vient nous servir a boire
Sous la tonnelle au frole de son jupon
Et gue chaqu’un lui raconte une histoire,
Une histoire a sa façon
La Madelon pour nous n’est pas sévère
Lorsqu’on lui prend la taille ou le menton,
Elle rit, c’est tous le mal qu’elle sait faire,
Madelon,Madelon,Madelon.