The Delta of the Triple Elevens

by William Elmer Bachman

	Battery D On The Road Passing Through a French Village.
Aboard The Edw. Luckenbach Battery D Homeward Bound.
	At Bush Terminal, Brooklyn Home. At Last.

CHAPTER XX.

ON THE ROAD TO BENOITE VAUX.

During the month of January it was reported in official circles that the 154th Artillery Brigade was to accompany the 79th Division into Germany as a unit of the Army of Occupation. The artillerymen were enthused with the prospects of joining their division and getting in the midst of the big scenery. The movement, however, never materialized. The outfit was forced to bear a disappointment like unto the shattering of expectations of getting in on the finale of the fighting.

As has been recorded, as early as October, 1918, the instructors had decided that the 311th artillery was in a position to take up active front-line duties. Several weeks previous the infantry and machine-gun regiments of the 79th Division had entered the fight and made their famous attack on Montfaucon, one of the most difficult positions to take in the Argonne sector. Twenty-seventh Division artillery had furnished the support at Montfaucon. The 79th Division artillerymen were eager to replace them and aid in the fighting of the division along the Meuse river.

After the holiday season Battery D spent its time in Blancheville with mounted hikes forming the mainstay of the schedule. Each day the outfit looked for orders to join the division and proceed to German territory.

The horses and mules brought to the regiment by the convoy, were distributed to the various batteries. Driver squads were immediately reorganized and great preparation attended all the hikes.

The latter part of January an official order was issued citing the individual members of Battery D as entitled to wear a gold service chevron, an indication of six months service on foreign soil. With the award of the gold stripe came the selection of the Lorraine Cross as the divisional insignia and the granting of leaves of absence to visit the beauty spots of France, with Paris included in the schedule as a possible three-day leave center. The first men left the battery on a fourteen day leave, at Blancheville. A waiting list was established and passes were issued in order of application. During the remainder of the battery's stay in France names were on the leave list.

The famous Mediterranean Riviera was the favorite leave center, although St. Malo and Grenoble were cited in official division orders. Many of the members of Battery D got the opportunity to spend a vacation in the Southern part of France, where the land is sheltered by the mountains from the North winds, and lit and warmed by a resplendent sun in a sky, the azure of which is seldom dulled by clouds. Nice, Monaco with its Monte Carlo and a trip across the Italian border near Menton, were included in the majority of the leave itineraries. While en route to the Southern clime it was customary for the soldier on leave to mistake trains; get on the wrong train and find himself landed in the City of Paris. This, in most cases, was the only opportunity the majority had of seeing the French metropolis, although a number of three-day leaves to the capital city were granted battery men.