Toward the latter part of August steps were taken to organize a battery commander"s detail. Lieut. Hugh M. Clarke took charge of the instruction work. Special instruction was started in map and road sketching, orientation and signal work. The battery in general was also put through a strenuous course in the use of the semaph.o.r.e and the wigwag.
On August 21st the regiment pa.s.sed in review on the large regimental drill ground, under a burning sun. The swim in the river at the close of that day was especially inviting.
While in Montmorillon Lieut. Sidney F. Bennett inst.i.tuted a series of battalion and regimental setting-up exercises. Calesthenics, to the music of the regimental band, was the feature of the exercises.
The long hike to the grain field drill ground was abandoned after two weeks and the village plaza was used for drill purposes. About this time several French army sergeants were attached to the regiment and instruction in gun pit construction was started. Details were kept busy for several days digging gun pits near the regimental drill grounds, but before the job was fully completed orders came for the regiment to leave Montmorillon.
Present day reminiscences vouch for the fact that the stay in Montmorillon was most pleasant. The weather had been ideal throughout the month of August. Except for a detachment from the regiment who replaced the negro M. P."s no guard duty was necessary in the town.
During the first week of September, 1918, however, all that the boys had to compare their lots and life in Montmorillon with was Camp Meade regime. In the light of this comparison many expressed words of approval that the outfit was finally getting away from such a horrid place. Those who failed to see the good points of Montmorillon, moreover, were without knowledge of what the future held in store for the outfit in its journey through France.
CHAPTER XVI.
ACTIVE TRAINING AT LA COURTINE.
La Courtine, a village in the Department of Creuse, France, is surrounded by hilly country, the very nature of the hills affording ideal artillery range. La Courtine, therefore, was the site of a French artillery camp for many years.
The village is divided into two parts; that which is gathered around a progressive looking station, and part is on a hill, which part is called Hightown. Both parts are confined to one street, replete with bars and cafes.
It was to La Courtine that the 311th was bound after leaving Montmorillon. The French had turned the artillery camp over to the Americans and thither the 311th regiment was sent to get active and intense training in range fire with the use of the French 75"s.
The troop special a.s.signed to the regiment upon leaving Montmorillon was made up of box cars, many of which had recently been used to transport crude oil, evinced by the oil on the floor of the cars. Onto every box car was loaded anywhere from 36 to 50 soldiers and a supply of iron-rations for the trip.
Montmorillon was last seen at 10 a. m., September 4th, when the trip of box cars began to jolt and bang and back and switch over the rails, with the troops aboard making the best of the situation, reclining on straw that had been secured to partly cover the crude oil.
The route was through Dorat, Gueter, Busseau and Feletin. La Courtine was reached at 9 o"clock. As per usual the first few sections of the battery were left at the station as a baggage detail, while the remainder of the battery marched through the village to the camp on the outskirts.
The camp consisted of concrete barracks, with no lights at night and a majority of the windows broken. The floor and ceiling, however, was solid, which, at least, meant dry shelter during the nights of France"s rainy season, soon to be experienced.
Besides having a majority of the window panes broken, the barracks bore marks of having been the target for machine-gun bullets. The exterior walls were pitted with holes. Battery D was not in camp long before the members knew the story of the Russian revolt that had been staged at La Courtine during the days of Russia"s exit from the war.
When Russia withdrew from the fighting Camp La Courtine sheltered Russian troops. When the crash came part of the Russian army encamped there revolted against a portion that sought to remain loyal to France. The result was battle. The revolutionists fortified the surrounding hills with machine-guns and opened fire on the barracks of the camp below. Many Russians were slain in the revolt and lie buried in a cemetery in the camp. The revolt was finally suppressed by a detachment of French cavalry dispatched to the scene.
Sleeping quarters at Camp La Courtine contained bunks made of two-inch plank, on which the Americans used their bed-ticks filled with straw.
Battery kitchens were set up the morning after arrival. The kitchens were located under a tented roof. Mess was enjoyed by the soldiers out in the open, as there was no mess hall for Battery D.
Except a slight rain the first day at Montmorillon, the four weeks spent by the outfit in Vienne Department were weeks of sunshine without a single day of rain, save the slight shower on the day of arrival. It was the declining days of the French dry-season. Advent of the outfit at La Courtine was with the rainy season. It rained the first night in camp and it kept raining almost continuously during the two months the battery spent at range practice.
The weather, however, affected no training schedules. The first days at La Courtine were given over to hours of intensive exercise, drill and instruction in all lines of artillery work. Specialty schools were started in orientation, telephone, radio, machine-gunners, etc.
It was at La Courtine that Bill Brennan and Joe Loskill, who accompanied the advance detail of the regiment to France, rejoined the battery. They had arrived at La Courtine several weeks previous to attend the machine-gun school. The machine-gunners, who left the battery at Montmorillon to attend the school, were also at La Courtine when the battery arrived.
Instruction was continued from early morning until nightfall. A large Russian cannon was discharged in the camp each morning at 5 o"clock, also at retreat time each night. Reveille was a daily formation but, as was the case at Montmorillon, retreat was suspended during the months the war continued. All energy was devoted to essential war-training formations.
Camp La Courtine housed a large and well-equipped American Y. M. C. A., presided over by a large and capable staff of secretaries. To a majority of the troops the Y. M. C. A. furnished greater inducement for an evening"s entertainment than did the numerous wineshops down town, that always stood open and ready to receive the cash of the American soldiers.
On September 10th materiel began to arrive for the regiment. Within a few days the regiment was equipped with French artillery equipment, the field pieces being the famous French 75 millimetre guns.
It was the first time that a majority of the boys of the regiment ever came in contact with a 75. During the period of training at Camp Meade, Md., U. S. A., the old members of Battery D spent eight months in learning the 3-inch American field gun. It was an entirely new proposition when equipped with 75"s and ordered to range practice.
Instruction was also started in equitation and harnessing. French artillery harness presented many new problems to the Americans. Many a soldier became highly exasperated in a vain attempt to untangle a set of French harness.
About twenty horses were furnished the regiment at La Courtine.
Several motor trucks were also supplied, whereby sufficient traction was secured to drag the guns out among the surrounding hills for actual firing practice.
Battery D was not long in getting acquainted with the French 75"s. On September 16th, just a brief span after the first instruction on the mechanism of the gun, the boys fired the first salvos on the range at La Courtine.
September 19th was the beginning of what was almost incessant work on the range. Rolling out at 5 a. m., the boys toiled on the range through the rain and mud, returning to barracks at 6:30 p. m.
Training continued in intensity. September 30th was one of the days reveille sounded at 4:30 a. m. The weather was miserable--rainy, windy, dreary. The battery left the barracks at day-break and hiked to the range with field-packs, to sleep in pup tents on range grounds, to be on hand early the following morning.
Gas masks and steel helmets were additional implements of war issued to the soldiers at La Courtine. Then followed hour after hour of gas instruction. Gas masks were carried by the battery on all hikes and drill formations. Besides adjusting the mask a countless number of times a day, a regimental order made it mandatory that the masks be worn for at least one-half hour continuously each day.
Influenza struck the regiment while encamped at La Courtine early in October. On October 5th, the camp Y. M. C. A. was closed under quarantine. The quarantine in the regiment was accompanied by strict daily inspections. The barrack squad rooms were thoroughly cleaned and disinfected each day and all blankets were taken out for a daily airing.
There was a plentiful supply of ammunition at La Courtine. The battery spent the days at range practice when thousands of dollars worth of sh.e.l.ls were fired at a great variety of targets from several different battery positions that were established.
While the battery was fitting itself at range practice, specialists were qualifying in all the attendant duties of artillery work. Toward the last of October it looked as though the outfit would soon see active service, as perfection in firing was rapidly being reached.
On October 15th the battery camouflage detail, headed by Sergeant Leo Delaney, of Pittston, Penna., began the construction of camouflaged gun positions on the range, after which Battery D partic.i.p.ated in the firing of a brigade problem.
Several days previous, October 11th, William Reynolds, of Pottsville, Penna., was killed when acting as No. 1 man of the first gun crew, in charge of Sergeant James Duffy, of Parsons, Penna. Standing in the rear of the piece, Sergeant Duffy had given the command to fire. The execution of the command was immediately followed by an explosion in the gun"s tube, a portion of steel flying and striking Private Reynolds, almost decapitating him. Nicholas Young, of Pottsville, Penna., acting as Number 2 man on the gun-crew, sustained a compound fracture of the leg. Gunner-Corporal John Chardell, of Hazleton, Penna., sustained injuries about the body which confined him to the camp hospital for several weeks.
Private Reynolds was buried in the American cemetery at Camp La Courtine on Sat.u.r.day, October 12th, at 2 p. m., with military honors.
This first casualty overseas awakened a new cord of sympathy among the battery members and it was with thoughtful determination they turned from the grave of their departed comrade and went back to their tasks of preparing for active war.
Training was continued amid rumors of early departure for active battle sectors. As early as October 10th orders were received for the outfit to prepare to move. Supply wagons, etc., were immediately packed. Days pa.s.sed, but no transportation was in sight. Each day the boys looked for an order to entrain, but the R. T. O."s were not heard from.
Thrilling news of the final stages of the drives reached the boys through the Paris editions of the New York Herald and Chicago Tribune, that were sold in the camp each day. The news enthused the soldiers and thrilled them with the desire to move forward and get in on the grand finale. They had toiled early and late, in all kinds of weather, to learn how, and it is natural to presume that a red-blooded soldier yearned the opportunity to make use of that knowledge acquired with such sacrifice and toil.
While waiting orders to move the battery took up a new position on the range. A brigade firing problem including a night barrage was fired on October 21st, with the signal details at work with signal rockets.
The brigade problem, which was the last firing the battery did in France, ended on October 30th with the laying down of a defensive barrage. The problem required twenty-four consecutive hours.
On October 28th, First Lieutenant C. D. Bailey joined the battery at La Courtine. Lieut. Bailey was formerly of the ambulance service of the French army and the S. S. U., No. 5. and at that time, he was the only man in the regiment ent.i.tled to wear a French decoration.
Meanwhile the outfit was packed up in the main, and was ready to move at short notice. With the approach of November the boys thought their movement was a.s.sured and plans were laid for a "feed," consisting of a pig-roast, to be held on November 2nd.
Late in the afternoon of November 2nd death claimed First-Sergeant James J. Farrell, of Parsons, Penna., who died a victim of pneumonia.
Sergeant Farrell, who was a regular army service man, was buried at La Courtine on Monday, November 4th.
The same day, November 4th, another battery member was claimed in death by Influenza. He was Private Horace Fardon, of Paterson, N. J., who was buried on November 5th. That evening at 6:55 o"clock Private First-Cla.s.s Joseph A. Loughran, of Hazleton, Penna., fell a victim to pneumonia. Private Loughran was buried alongside Private Fardon, on the morning of November 6th.
Besides paying last military honors to their departed comrades the boys spent the days previous to the cessation of the fighting on the pistol range, developing their proficiency with side-arms.