# History of the 305th Field Artillery

HISTORY OF 305th FIELD ARTILLERY
Drawn by Corporal Roos, Battery D
"Rocket Guards Had to Stand Their Ground and Take Whatever Came"
(See page 243)
History of the 305th Field Artillery
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS Garden City New York
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
CHARLES WADSWORTH CAMP ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE 305th F. A. WHO REST IN FRANCE
PREFACE
When the Colonel assigned to me the task of writing a history of the regiment we were billeted at Arc-en-Barrois in the Haute Marne. Most of the work, therefore, was done at Arc and Malicorne, or, practically, under field conditions. One must admire all the more, then, the success of the artists, which overcame a lack of proper tools and working space. To Corporal Roos, Private Enroth, Corporal Schmidt, Musician Boyle, Corporal Tucker, Captain Dana, Captain Starbuck, and Private Everts the regiment is indebted for the majority of these lively souvenirs of campaigns and billets.
Tremearne of B and Downs of A were particularly useful in gathering statistics and material. Where statistics lack, or are not complete, it must be assumed that names and figures were either not furnished or could not be obtained.
The historian has thought it of interest to follow his own narrative with an appendix containing contributions by individual officers and men.
The whole, he ventures to hope, will constitute a pleasant record-necessarily imperfect, because of its brevity—of a very memorable experience.
Charles Wadsworth Camp.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | | PAGE |
| I. | The Regiment Is Born | 3 |
| II. | It Has Growing Pains | 13 |
| III. | And Becomes Acquainted With Paper Work | 26 |
| IV. | On the Range | 37 |
| V. | Holidays and Rumors | 47 |
| VI. | The Ages of Getting Ready | 56 |
| VII. | Good-byes and the Submarine Zone | 71 |
| VIII. | Brest, Pontanezin, and the Chemin de Fer | 85 |
| IX. | Sourge and First Casualties | 94 |
| X. | Hustled to the Front | 104 |
| XI. | Making the Hun Dance | 120 |
| XII. | Consolidating in Lorraine | 135 |
| XIII. | Barrages and Raids | 147 |
| XIV. | The Fires Beyond Château-Thierry | 165 |
| XV. | Across the Marne to Nesles Woods | 174 |
| XVI. | Reconnoitering in Front of Fismes | 199 |
| XVII. | Les Près Farm and Much Shell Fire | 210 |
| XVIII. | The Cost of Battle | 223 |
| XIX. | Spies and the Advance | 240 |
| XX. | The Argonne | 259 |
| XXI. | Always Through the Forest | 272 |
| XXII. | The Last Phase | 280 |
APPENDIX
| I. | ROLL OF HONOR | 293 |
| II. | ATHLETICS | 297 |
| III. | WHERE WING WAS HURT | 302 |
| IV. | THE RESPONSE | 303 |
| V. | A TRIP TO GERMANY | 304 |
| VI. | OBSERVATION. | 306 |
| VII. | A MEMORABLE FORTY-EIGHT HOURS. | 325 |
| VIII. | THE ACCOMPANYING GUN | 329 |
| IX. | GASSED CAVE AT LA PETITES LOGETTE NEAR BLANZY | 385 |
| X. | THE DUD | 338 |
| XI. | THE DUD AGAIN | 339 |
| XII. | PRAISE AND ADVICE | 343 |
| XIII. | DOING SCOUT DUTY FOR THE ARTILLERY. | 346 |
| XIV. | RUSTLING SUPPLIES | 349 |
| XV. | A GOOD DINNER SHOT TO H | 353 |
| XVI. | THE FIRST AND LAST SHor's | 355 |
| XVII. | CHANGES OF STATION OF REGIMENTAL P. C. | 357 |
| XVIII. | ROSTER OF THE OFFICERS. | 350 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Halftone Illustrations
| "Rocket guards had to stand their ground and take whatever came” | Frontispiece FACING PAGE |
| Early and imperfect days on the range at Souge | 102 |
| “The battle roar would die before a threatening silence" | 104 |
| A train bivouaced | 170 |
| "Fourgons lurched dangerously | 186 |
| "We curved up the hill past the half destroyed Romanesque church” | 202 |
| Colonel, afterwards Brigadier General, Manus McCloskey, the Brigade Commander. | 208 |
| A neighbor at work in gas masks | 214 |
| “O.K.—O.K." | 216 |
| A kitchen near a battery position | 222 |
| Barbed wire. | 232 |
| A tank | 232 |
| “The artillery would follow in support" | 244 |
| Resting on the march | 260 |
| A well shelled road | 262 |
| Off duty for a moment | 262 |
| A portion of the regiment concealed in the Argonne | 266 |
| The officers of the regiment at Arc-en-Barrois | 286 |
| Malicorne from the Sarthe | 288 |
| 305th Field Artillery, 77th Division | 290 |
| TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS | PAGE |
| Upton-France. | 3 |
| Headquarters Hill, Camp Upton | 11 |
| | PAGE |
| When the recruits began to arrive at Camp Upton | 17 |
| How you felt the first time the medical officer used your arm for a pin cushion | 23 |
| Reflections on liberty were alike at Upton and in France | 29 |
| A quiet game in a mess hall at Upton | 37 |
| The first time you found a cootie . | 49 |
| This map illustrates the travels of the regiment from its landing at Brest to its final billets at Malicortie . | 74 |
| The coolies hard at work at Camp de Sougo | 92 |
| “The horses never got to like the 'hommes' and 'chevaux' | 111 |
| “A group of gaunt walls suggested a devastating fire" | 115 |
| The picket line. | 117 |
| "Something dead and corrupt | 121 |
| The water cart. | 125 |
| An observatory. | 133 |
| The regiment's home in Lorraine | 136 |
| The rolling kitchen | 144 |
| The mess line | 153 |
| A three-cornered fight | 160 |
| On the march | 179 |
| “The shelter of broken walls" | 191 |
| The Vesle and Aisne campaigns | 201 |
| Mess-hour at the Fismes front. | 215 |
| A Battery D piece at Chery | 224 |
| Carrying in ammunition. | 227 |
| “The telephone details were at it day and night | 234 |
| The jumping-off place | 264 |
| The vicinity of La Harazée | 269 |
| Lançon and Grand Ham | 273 |
| Grand-Pre | 275 |
| The dug-out near which Lieutenant Hoadley was killed | 277 |
| Forcing forward | 278 |
| Binarville and its surroundings. | 282 |
| Refugees flowing out, the artillery going in | 284 |
| The church at Arc-en-Barrois | 286 |