prominently. The latter became a favorite registration point for the American artillery. The 155's and 75's alike registered their guns there daily.

                Of course in a new, undeveloped, active sector like this one, the "front lines" were a myth. They did not exist. The Infantry had no protection whatsoever. They lay around in shallow holes or hid among the wheat and bushes as best they could. To show one's head was fatal. The enemy was relentless. Day and night he harassed with 77's and gas.

                The battery positions also were frequently subjected to heavy fire, but C Battery was the only one to suffer severely. It did not take us long to see that our work was cut out for us from the start. To develop our positions an immense amount of digging and construction work had to be done. Ammunition had to be brought in over a slippery path through the woods, and cleaned, and we had to maintain a steady harassing fire all night. All sorts of schemes were tried out to help the ammunition situation. First, we used a stretcher, but it broke on its third trip; then we tried a vehicle, closely resembling a baby carriage, without much success. Next we tried slinging bags over the back of a horse, but the path was too narrow and slippery. Finally, we were back where we started with the old way of four shells in a sandbag.

                As mentioned above, our two guns in the active platoon were kept busy every night harassing the German lines. As a rule, two cannonneers on each piece were sufficient at a time, but even at that the cannonneers got little sleep, between digging all day and firing and carrying ammunition all night.

CONTENTS
INDEX