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BEING THE NARRATIVE OF BATTERY A OF THE 101st FIELD ARTILLERY

Page 179

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est shell-hole. The guns were camouflaged and laid in on a defensive barrage. The disrupted kitchen was re-established in a huge shell-hole higher up on the hill-side. Three hundred twenty-pound shells were carried to the top of the hill, two at a time or four at a time, depending on the man's state of exhaustion. Telephone lines were stretched to Battalion Head­ quarters across the valley and up the hill to the guns, and a central established in a shell-hole.

                Towards dark the question of sleeping quarters most naturally presented itself. Each man appropriated a shell-hole along the shoulder of the hill and made such improvement as he could. The rain was partially deflected by a shelter—half spread over the hole, but it had a disagreeable way of forming a puddle in the hollow of the canvas and suddenly deluging the blankets and person of the proprietor, at the least provocation. After mess, a gun-guard, gas- guard, and telephone-guard were posted, and in spite of the wet and cold, everyone slept the blissful sleep of the ignorant.

                The morning of October 19 dawned clear and dry. It meant the Boche could now observe our movements, but we didn't consider that, for we were thoroughly sick of wet clothes and wet blankets. The night before eight caissons had come up with ammunition, and twenty of the horses with five drivers had remained behind, spending the night in shell- holes near the kitchen. All day Friday was spent in packing shells up the hill on the backs of the horses, ten shells at a time swung in a blanket. In this way we got 1000 rounds up to the guns. During the day,

 

 

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