The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-01-14
| you've seen pictures Of French box
cars, each cars is marked eight
! cheyeaux or 40 homes. Translated into

cars, each cars is marked eight
cheveaux or 40 homes. Translated into
English 1t means eight horses or 40
men. Well they piled 40 men with
full equipment, three days rations
and 1900 pounds OF ammunition IN
each car. When tell you that there
was just room enough to sit down, you
can imagine what 1t was at night,
trying to sleep that way. We travelled
three days and nights and finally I'M
loaded at Bar.sur-Aube. From there
we had to hike IA kilometers to Ur-
Vile a small village. 1t is needless
to say we were all in but much so. We
trained at that village couple OF
months, A and B companies, and be.
lieve me 1t was training. What we
did in the States was child's play com.
pared to this, The drill hours were
from 2 to $3.50 then came supper, re.
treat, and we had to sweep them u
mean those) dog-gone streets every
night. You would be surprised at the
damage that the cows and sheep would
do and they always picked the clean
est places. There wasn't any stores
in the village but there were wine
shops. Here you could buy a can Of
sarines for the modest su1a Of three
francs or sixty cents. or a can Of
peaches or apricots for ten francs or
two bucks. One day we got orders
to leave. This meant another little
hike to Bau-sur.Aube where We board
ed the train, this time, forty-si1 men
to the car. Each man had 220 rounds
OF ammunition. We piled OF at 1900
pm. We could hear the big guns and
see the flashes OF the star shells and
signal lights. There was another lit.
tie hike Of sixteen kilometers. Our
company was billeted in Q chateau for
about ten days. A motor train moved
us to another part Of the front, We
passed three chateaus on the way.
One day was spent In a French billet
and then our Journey to the lines was
started. We passed over the systems
of trenches which the French and
Huns had used for four years. The
country and woods were torn up
fierce. We occasionally passed the
body Of a Hun or a dead horse along
the road. We liked all that day with
little rest. At dusk we came to 9 "a
vine where we stopped for while.
About nine o'clock we started up TO
take our sector Of the line. Some way
the guides got mixed up and 1t took
us until morning to get there. In the
meantime we were under she'll fire.
After hiking all day and night you can
imagine how tired we were. The first
thing we didNwas to dig in, two men
to q hole. A fellow named Whitaker
and dug a nice big hole beneath q
tree and were Just ready TO pile in to
;get some sleep when the lieutenant
stepped up and said, Boys. I'll take
the hole. You can dig another Ma.
chine gun bullets and shells were in
the air all the while. Well the only
thing to do was to dig another hole
which We did although we were no,
overly enthusiastic about It. All we
had to eat was canned lully and hard
tack, very little water. About mid
night VIC were ordered to get ready q
90 over the top. We went over q,
dawn, following very heavy barrsse
Believe me, the bullets and shrapnel
were sure thick. We emerged from
| the woods, CROSSED q meadow, cut our
way through barbed wire entansle
ments, and started up q hill. The Ger
man machine gun nests were at the
top OF the hill. We took these after
a.. toe