CHEMIN DES DAMES
Early plans of the War Department for training troops in France
included a period during which the "Yanks" were brigaded with French
or British units to spend a probationary time in the lines, when
they received instruction in trench routine, were taken on raiding
expeditions by the veteran fighters of the Allies and received their
baptism of fire, often very severe when the Hun discovered the presence
of green troops on the front. It was on this course of training the
Company was bound when just at dusk on February 7 packs were slung and
the men began their struggle up the ice-covered hill on the road to
Chatenois.
Experience in hiking to the trenches soon taught enlisted men that the
primitive life on the front line did not call for various accoutrements
thought necessary in the barracks, or at least it was much easier to
do without certain articles than it was to carry them. This first
trip, however, saw packs, bundles and bags such as had adorned the
men when they left Niantic. By the time they reached the top of the
hill back of the camp, although many rests had intervened during
the climb, resolutions galore were made concerning the amount to be
packed on another trip. With very little climbing to do on the rest of
the journey, it was made in good time, and under the supervision of
Lieutenant Paton the gun carts and wagons were loaded onto the waiting
train, after which rations for the trip were drawn for each car and the
men made themselves comfortable for the night.
Sleeping on the floor of a box car had no terrors for the men who
had spent the past three months on the hard bunks of the barracks,
so the bumping, swaying progress of the train leaving early the
following morning failed to disturb the rest of most of the sleepers.
The next day as the train passed through Epernay, Bar le Duc and
Chalons-sur-Marne, wooden crosses on the graves of the first valiant
defenders of the Marne and houses wrecked by shell fire and flames
brought clearly to their minds the step they were taking toward
the completion of a task other men had found hard. The naturally
light-hearted spirit of the Company prevented any depression and
singing could be heard from end to end of the train as it rolled along
on the grand line of France through some of the prettiest scenery that
land affords. Travelling most of the time through valleys where the
tiny villages dotted with white the green of early spring crowning the
hills on all sides, "Sunny France" became more of a reality and the
spirit of her men, fighting to preserve these peaceful scenes, became
more thoroughly appreciated as some of its inspiration dawned upon
their brothers in Democracy.
Early evening found the train at Dormans, a short distance east of
Chateau-Thierry, and from there a branch line was followed to Braisne,
a town less than six months before in the hands of the Hun. War zone
rules prevailed here and the unloading was done mainly in darkness but
accomplished quickly. At the end of a ten kilometer march the Battalion
was billeted in the ruined city of Vailly. To D Company fell a hut of
similar type to the ones used as barracks in Certilleux. Sleep was
curtailed the next morning by orders to move to the security of dugouts
and cellars with which the city was filled. During the balance of the
day explorations were in order, for the surrounding country offered
limitless opportunities to observe the havoc wrought by war. Twice the
opposing armies had battled through this portion of the department of
Aisne, so that trenches, observation posts and graves of soldiers of
both powers were plentiful.
Airplanes passed time and again on their missions over the lines.
Men of the Company saw their first struggle between aviators, viewed
breathlessly the feat of a German birdman who destroyed a French
observation balloon and the escape of the observer from the basket of
the "blimp" in a parachute. The camouflage screens used so extensively
during the war were much in evidence here as the roads were open to
enemy observation. All other artifices of war as it had been developed
since the introduction of trench fighting were to be seen in abundance.
On the night of February 10 C Company of the 102d Machine Gun Battalion
entered the line at Froidmont Farm and took positions turned over to
them by the French along the slopes of the famous ridge crowned for the
distance of about four kilometers by the Chemin des Dames, from which
the sector took its name.
Packs were rolled on short notice in the afternoon of the 13th and a
march of four kilometers to the east took the Company to the ruined
village of Chavonne where the wagon train established quarters and
above which the Company was billeted in caves called "Les Grenouilles"
(the frogs). Here were electric lights and wooden floors and French
Army canteens nearby, but luxuries lost their interest when a German
aviator and his machine, felled perhaps three months before, were
discovered in a shell-pitted field near the cave.
Preparations for the coming trip to the front were continued, the guns
polished and oiled to the last degree, carts thoroughly overhauled and
personal equipment put in proper order. Aerial activity offered the
only distraction from duty. One bright day when the entire Company was
viewing a combat between Allied and German planes from the hill above
its appointed home, General Peter E. Traub (at that time in command of
the 51st Infantry Brigade, of which the Company was a part) made an
impromptu visit, resulting in a comprehensive and forceful lecture from
that officer on the proper deportment of soldiers when enemy planes
came into view.
According to the routine established reconnaissance parties preceded
their respective companies into the line by twenty-four hours to
allow a relief without endangering the strength of the position. In
conformity with this Lieutenant Condren, with a representative from
each section, went ahead of the Company. On February 16 Lieutenant
Thomas led the balance of the command up through Ostel, where dusk
was awaited because of the exposed road to be traversed between that
village and Froidmont Farm, the objective of the Company. From there
they marched down the road in sections into the cave cut from the
soft limestone deposit from which the first and second platoons took
positions in the first line, with the third remaining in the cave as a
reserve.
One of the wonders of the war, that cave had a capacity of about ten
thousand men, most of whom could be furnished with sleeping quarters.
It was equipped with electric lights burned only during certain hours
of the day, officers' quarters and kitchens for a limited number of
men and the ever present French canteen with its stock of wine and
chocolate.
Passing through the cave, the men designated to take the first shift
on the line found travelling difficult when they reached the stairs
leading up and out at the front. These were narrow and steep with
roof so low that "Duke" Rowley's equipment wedged him in and he was
forced to have some of it removed before he could continue. Finally
reaching the outside, guides were waiting to conduct the squads to the
replacements they were to occupy, and after guns were set up all but
a guard for each gun sought the dugouts, which were deep, small and
unventilated.
[Illustration: CHEMIN DES DAMES—RATION DETAIL.]
One of the difficulties of duty in this part of the line was the
disposal of the kitchen which was finally left near Ostel in a
depression which became known as the forerunner of a long line of
"Shrapnel Valleys" for the smoke from the fires always presented a
fair target to Hun gunners. From here the "grub" was carried to the
men in the line in large marmite cans constructed with the idea of
keeping food warm and fitted with handles supposed to make them more
easily portable. These trips accomplished twice each day by details
from each section were often fraught with danger, for the Hun insisted
on "strafing" the road at the most inopportune times, and hairbreadth
escapes were daily topics while the gun squads waited in their dugouts.
Accustomed to activity of a strenuous sort during most of their
waking hours, the men found trench warfare irksome, wondering at the
businesslike attitude adopted by the doughty French soldiers who
took their trips to the trenches much as most Americans take their
daily work in peace times. Chaffing under the restraint, McAviney and
Parmalee produced life-sized bombardments one night for the benefit of
Lieutenants Bacharach and Carroll by throwing hand grenades over the
parapet until their tactics were discovered.
Gas alarms and drills, airplanes passing over and one call for a
barrage which brought a prompt response from the Company guns broke
the monotony of the stay. The main source of amusement, however, was
watching the shells from American batteries break in the village of
Chevregny, which with Monampteuil occupied the ridge on the opposite
side of the valley in the German lines. Through this valley ran the
Ailette River, a tributary of the Oise, as did the canal connecting the
Oise with the Aisne.
Relieved by C Company February 22, the Company proceeded back to
quarters at Chavonne.
Turkey was on the menu for the 24th and arrangements were made with Dr.
Johnston, of the Y. M. C. A., so that each man was allowed a limited
amount of credit at his canteen, for all were penniless as usual. Added
to these luxuries was a bath for everyone obtainable at a station in
Vailly loaned by the French authorities.
Soupir, St. Mard and Cys-la-Commune, the latter two south of the Aisne,
were visited by the men during the next two days. Some of the officers
also made the trip to the neighboring towns. Lieutenants Nelson and
Paton, returning from a purchasing expedition and failing to find the
road leading across the bridge, commandeered a raft which failed them
in mid-stream and their supplies were resting on the bottom of the
river when they succeeded in reaching the bank.
On their second trip to the lines, made on the night of the 27th, the
Company officers decided it would be necessary to pass through the
cave, and after a long struggle through twisted paths, barbed wire,
broken trench timbers and mud worse than ordinary because of a recent
fall of snow, the men reached their assigned positions.
With the exception of a raid conducted by the French in coöperation
with members of the 101st Infantry Regiment, on the left of the Company
positions, followed by intermittent bombardments of retaliation by both
sides, the second shift in the trenches for the members of old Troop A
was uneventful. Routine duties continued until Friday, March 8, when
French soldiers relieved them and they returned to billets at Chavonne.
The Hun's farewell was enthusiastic, high explosives and gas shells
expressing his hatred for the new units in the line. A bombing squadron
bound for Paris passed above the men as they trudged back through Ostel
and gas shells were so numerous that much of the trip was made with the
masks adjusted.
In preparation for eventualities, the French authorities were
constructing defensive positions protected by barbed wire for several
miles to the rear of the lines they then occupied. It was into some
of these just to the rear of American batteries near Ostel that part
of D Company was sent on the day following its relief from the front
line. Life at these posts was ideal, duties were cut to a minimum, food
was brought in plentiful quantities to the doors of the dugouts, and
with pay day on the Wednesday following the relief, French canteens
were liberally patronized. Excellent weather prevailed during the rest
of the stay in this sector and when the Battalion left Chavonne for
Braisne March 18 impressions concerning the character of war were of a
high nature for the Company had passed through its training period with
no casualties and but few real hardships.
On the march from Chavonne to Braisne, the men again passed through
Vailly, following the same road it had covered in making the trip to
the lines. All along the way were evidences that the thrifty French
were making every attempt to cultivate all available land. Most of the
fields the Hun had held for nearly four years up to the preceding fall
were green with new crops and cattle grazed among the mazes of barbed
wire both armies had left in their haste. Braisne seen for the first
time during daylight bore few of the scars of war, for the retreat
first of the French and then of the German armies had been precipitous
in this particular region.
Leaving at 11:30 that night the train moved out in the rain always in
evidence when D Company was moving. Travelling all the following day
the troops were detrained at Brienne le Chateau in the department of
the Aube, about one hundred miles from Neufchateau, where the march
to Vesaignes sous Lafauche for that mythical rest began in the usual
drizzle. The journey ended for that day when the Company arrived at
La Chaise, where quarters for all the men were taken in a large barn.
Twelve kilometers to Ville sur Terre finished the task for the next
day and this quiet little village was made the scene of deeply felt
orations delivered by Sergeant Curtiss and Maiden to the crowd in the
village square on varied topics, the spirits of the entire Company
apparently bolstered by purchases in the cafés. Two more days here and
the Battalion again moved under orders to participate in a war game
which German successes on the British front were soon to cancel.
Through Thil, Nully, Blumery to Dommartin le St. Pere the men trudged
on a twenty-one kilometer march Saturday, March 23. Conversation with
people at that place revealed that it was being used by the French as
a refuge for many of the peasants driven from their homes near the
Belgian border. Sunday's trip was to Nomecourt, a distance of thirteen
kilometers. The following day the route lay through Joinville and
Poissons to Maconcourt. The next day twelve kilometers more found the
Battalion in Chambroncourt and Wednesday, March 27, Vesaignes sous
Lafauche with its fleeting promise of a rest came into view, completing
a hike which had required six marching days and during which over
sixty-five miles had been covered.
The journey had not been tiresome, for the weather had been favorable
with the exception of two days. The beauties of France, hidden by shell
holes and barbed wire in the vicinity of the lines and mud and snow
during the Company's early training period, had begun to be evident in
the smiling countryside which greeted the men on their trip. Fields
were either green with new crops or brown where the earth had been
freshly plowed, trees were showing the bright green of new leaves and
the white roads in excellent repair which traversed the entire section
seemed as ribbons binding together the tiny villages snuggled in the
nooks among the hills, with neatly trimmed hedges and backgrounds of
stately poplars along the banks of the little streams, producing an
impression of peace and love in contrast with the hate and destruction
of the front.
Assigned to barracks on the edge of the town, D Company proceeded to
the task of unpacking barracks bags and settling down for a stay. This
was rudely interrupted within two days when the smashing attacks of the
Hun hordes against the British had met with such success that General
Foch, in command of the Allied armies, found it necessary to use all
available reserves. To this end the 102d Machine Gun Battalion, with
the rest of the 26th Division, was ordered to the sector northwest of
Toul as a relief for the 1st Division, which, with its record of nearly
three months training in the lines, was needed where serious activity
was impending.