CHAPTER VI
CHEMIN DES DAMES
Early plans of the War Department for training troops in France included a period during which the "Yanks" were brigaded with French or British units to spend a probationary time in the lines, when they received instruction in trench routine, were taken on raiding expeditions by the veteran fighters of the Allies and received their baptism of fire, often very severe when the Hun discovered the presence of green troops on the front. It was on this course of training the Company was bound when just at dusk on February 7 packs were slung and the men began their struggle up the ice-covered hill on the road to Chatenois.
Experience in hiking to the trenches soon taught enlisted men that the primitive life on the front line did not call for various accoutrements thought necessary in the barracks, or at least it was much easier to do without certain articles than it was to carry them. This first trip, however, saw packs, bundles and bags such as had adorned the men when they left Niantic. By the time they reached the top of the hill back of the camp, although many rests had intervened during the climb, resolutions galore were made concerning the amount to be packed on another trip. With very little climbing to do on the rest of the journey, it was made in good time, and under the supervision of Lieutenant Paton the gun carts and wagons were loaded onto the waiting train, after which rations for the trip were drawn for each car and the men made themselves comfortable for the night.
Sleeping on the floor of a box car had no terrors for the men who had spent the past three months on the hard bunks of the barracks, so the bumping, swaying progress of the train leaving early the following morning failed to disturb the rest of most of the sleepers. The next day as the train passed through Epernay, Bar le Duc and Chalons-sur-Marne, wooden crosses on the graves of the first valiant defenders of the Marne and houses wrecked by shell fire and flames brought clearly to their minds the step they were taking toward the completion of a task other men had found hard. The naturally light-hearted spirit of the Company prevented any depression and singing could be heard from end to end of the train as it rolled along on the grand line of France through some of the prettiest scenery that land affords. Travelling most of the time through valleys where the tiny villages dotted with white the green of early spring crowning the hills on all sides, "Sunny France" became more of a reality and the spirit of her men, fighting to preserve these peaceful scenes, became more thoroughly appreciated as some of its inspiration dawned upon their brothers in Democracy.
Early evening found the train at Dormans, a short distance east of Chateau-Thierry, and from there a branch line was followed to Braisne, a town less than six months before in the hands of the Hun. War zone rules prevailed here and the unloading was done mainly in darkness but accomplished quickly. At the end of a ten kilometer march the Battalion was billeted in the ruined city of Vailly. To D Company fell a hut of similar type to the ones used as barracks in Certilleux. Sleep was curtailed the next morning by orders to move to the security of dugouts and cellars with which the city was filled. During the balance of the day explorations were in order, for the surrounding country offered limitless opportunities to observe the havoc wrought by war. Twice the opposing armies had battled through this portion of the department of Aisne, so that trenches, observation posts and graves of soldiers of both powers were plentiful.
Airplanes passed time and again on their missions over the lines. Men of the Company saw their first struggle between aviators, viewed breathlessly the feat of a German birdman who destroyed a French observation balloon and the escape of the observer from the basket of the "blimp" in a parachute. The camouflage screens used so extensively during the war were much in evidence here as the roads were open to enemy observation. All other artifices of war as it had been developed since the introduction of trench fighting were to be seen in abundance.
On the night of February 10 C Company of the 102d Machine Gun Battalion entered the line at Froidmont Farm and took positions turned over to them by the French along the slopes of the famous ridge crowned for the distance of about four kilometers by the Chemin des Dames, from which the sector took its name.
Packs were rolled on short notice in the afternoon of the 13th and a march of four kilometers to the east took the Company to the ruined village of Chavonne where the wagon train established quarters and above which the Company was billeted in caves called "Les Grenouilles" (the frogs). Here were electric lights and wooden floors and French Army canteens nearby, but luxuries lost their interest when a German aviator and his machine, felled perhaps three months before, were discovered in a shell-pitted field near the cave.
Preparations for the coming trip to the front were continued, the guns polished and oiled to the last degree, carts thoroughly overhauled and personal equipment put in proper order. Aerial activity offered the only distraction from duty. One bright day when the entire Company was viewing a combat between Allied and German planes from the hill above its appointed home, General Peter E. Traub (at that time in command of the 51st Infantry Brigade, of which the Company was a part) made an impromptu visit, resulting in a comprehensive and forceful lecture from that officer on the proper deportment of soldiers when enemy planes came into view.