The main road took us to the left through a deep valley, up a very steep muddy hill to an echelon in the woods. This echelon consisted of one large wooden barrack, which accounted for over half the Battery, and a few old shacks. In spite of their usual early morning exhaustion, the drivers watered their horses at the town of Rupt, about one kilometer away, be­ fore they gave up the hopeless struggle against leaden eyelids.

                This daily trip to the muddy little river in Rupt was not always without excitement, for every few days the town was bombed by enemy planes. Only once during our trips there, however, did we have to take cover, and then the Hun was out for larger game and did not bother us in the least. The life in the Rupt echelon was quiet and uneventful for the men, but we were kept in anticipation of a nightly move by the fact that Lt. MacNamee with a small detail was engaged in reconnoitering the lines for our probable positions. Each added night's rest seemed a special heaven-sent gift which we could not understand but for which we were duly thankful.

                At last, on the night of September 7, all nine caissons were sent to Genicourt for ammunition, and on the following night we received orders to report in regimental column in the woods, facing north. Thus began a very painful experience.

                From the start things were unpropitious. The night could not have been darker, and an unfriendly sky alternated between a steady downpour of rain and unrestrained, solid torrents. The condition of the woodroads can be better imagined than described. It

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