Putnam patriot. [volume] (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962, 1919-06-13
104TH INFANTRY
In FRANCE

Inc loHoNtnS nttle story OF the be-
ginning of the 104th Infantry in
France was written by Private Ray
mond H. Brown, Surgical Base Hos
pital, Camp Devens, Private Brown
is the son of Mr.. and Mrs Herbert
Brown. Pomfret street, and was
wounded overseas. The story was
published in the Boston Post:
On the 23rd day of October, 1917,
the i04th Infantry arrived in France
at L'Harve. We entrained there in
box cars and rode two days and
nights, and arrived at Harreville,
France. the Goth of October. We left
the train and walked over mountains
TO Sartes. We were billeted in barns
and barracks. We had pretty stiff
training during the winter.
We hiked over some old Roman
roads and we drilled at trench war.
fare on the hills In November and
December we drilled in snow and not
one man had dry feet. We wore hob
nail shoes. which were like sieve and
most of the time it was either raining
or showing, so we didn't have any
chance to dry our shoes for the next
day. In the morning when we would
get up our shoes would be frozen to
the floor.
We left Sartes the End of Febru-
airy, 1918, for Ghemin DIES Danes,
where we were in reserve for three
days. We went into the lines Feb 6.
] was detached from my company and
went with the l04th supply company,
driving mules.
Every day we would see Fritz's
planes flying around and the Ameri-
can and French planes chasing them.
About every day one or two of
Fritz's planes would be put out of
commission, and some would either
be smashed to pieces or would land
safe and be captured later. Generally
they would be demolished. We would
start out at night for the front line
trenches with provisions for the boys
and we could hear Fritz's planes over
ourN heads, not knowing what minute
a bomb would land near and put n
finish to wagon, mules and men. We
were very lucky while in that sector,
not losing any men, but having few
mules scratched up little,
We left Chemin DIES Danes the lat
ter part of March to 20 to a rest
camp, but to our surprise we were
put into the lines at Toul, after two
days on the train and eight days over
the road.
We stayed in the Toul sector until
the 18th of June, 1918. While there
we were also lodging shells and draw
ing provisions to the front line trench
es. |, as well as the rest of the boys,
can remember the nights that we were
ready to move into the lines at mo-
ment's notice. For instance we stood
two miles on the road from Beau
mont to Minel-a-T Tour. We were at
| one point near some woods. All our
wagons were loaded and the company
had their packs rolled ready for a
rush. We stayed in that place all
night, as the Germans were getting
ready for drive and were not taking
any chances. Fritz must have smell
rat and thought that his force was
not strong enough to finish the job il
he started it.
We were always ready at mo-
ment's notice to rush to the lines. On
| the 18th of June we were getting
ready to go to Paris to parade, and
while on the picket line some crazy
| Fritz came over with plane and
dropped a few bombs. one of them
wounding my chum and myself. We
were taken to the hospital, and the
company left for Paris. But a sur
prise was awaiting them, instead of
reaching Paris they again went into
the line at Chateau Thierry. From
that time on | never knew what was
going on in the lines.