A stirring incident occurred en route when we passed the boys of the old Sixty-Ninth New York Regiment. Brooklyn hailed Brooklyn; Harlem called to Harlem; Bronx met Bronx. It was a breath of home to the already veteran Sixty-Ninth and more than a cheering welcome to us.
We shared Vacqueville with a battalion of the Alabama regiment of the 42d "Rainbow" Division. Advance parties were sent into the lines to acquaint themselves with the position which we were to take over. And in the dead of night, on June 20th-21st, Company B took over that part of the line between Ancerviller and Badonviller designated as P. C. (post commandant) Hameau and P. C. Montreux.
The first and second platoons of our Company held a position in the Grand Bois (Big Woods), a section of forest southeast of Ancerviller. The second and third platoons and Company headquarters occupied the ruined village of St. Maurice. St. Maurice was a part of the line at this point and had been subjected at different times to severe shelling. Only bare skeletons of the buildings remained and any nook or cranny between sections of walls and under a bit of roof was used as shelter. Deserted cellars had been bolstered, reinforced, and barricaded so that they would serve as shell-proof protection in the event of attack.
The First Gas Attack
It was usually Fritz's intention to place a harassing barrage on any section of the line where he knew that a relief was being effected. But he was less watchful than usual when we went in.
U. S. Official Photo "Hotel de Barn"—Showing Barber Shop and Reading and Writing Rooms
The enemy awoke, however, three days later, on the morning of Monday, June 24th, and attacked our regimental outposts. In order to effectively prevent any assistance being rendered by the platoons stationed in St. Maurice, a heavy barrage was laid on the town beginning at 3:30 A.M. During the early part of the shelling the continual use of H. E.'s (high explosive shells), with an occasional gas shell, served to keep the men not only penned in their bomb-proof cellars, but also forced the continued use of gas masks. Gradually the H. E.'s were interspersed with gas shells until a point was reached where far more gas shells than high explosives fell into the town, resulting in a heavy blanket of phosgene, mustard, and lachrymatory gases settling over the position.
The barrage did not lift until 6:00 A.M. and when it did the platoons were forced to take a defensive position to guard against any possible success of the enemy.
During the night before the attack, the men had been digging until a late hour on a system of trench defense. This entailed a lack of sleep which, together with the continued wearing of the gas mask and the exposure endured immediately after the barrage, weakened their resistance to such an extent as to make them easy victims to the poisonous gases.