cibly seized the rope
that hung from its neck. Then the members of the foraging party
remembered they had no authority from their officer in command to
conduct such operations. So half the detail, namely Corporal Pond,
returned to outline the situation and report the success of their
movement to Lieutenant Waters. Not averse to acquiring fresh beef free
himself, he granted the necessary authority. But in the meantime, a new
force had appeared on the scene demanding possession of the cow, to
judge from his gesticulations, for his torrent of words were meaningless
to the two foragers. This was a young French soldier, breathless from a
run across the fields, cap askew and hair disheveled. So Pond went back
to the position again, this time for some one to act as interpreter.
Through this medium the volunteer raiding party learned that the cow was
the property of the major commanding the neighboring French batteries,
that the cow's guardian had fallen asleep and the cow had wandered off,
and that the major would do dire things to the poilu if he did not
recover the cow before the major learned of his loss. So the battery got
no fresh beef, but ate "goldfish" instead.

Two days later the machine gunners achieved real distinction, when
Donahue and Bowly brought a German aeroplane to earth a few hundred feet
from the position. The plane was riddled with bullets and both pilot and
observer were badly wounded. In descending the plane crashed into a tree
at the edge of the woods, wrecking the machine. This first actual
contact with the enemy and visual token of damage done him was not
without its thrills. Needless to say, "beaucoup souvenirs" were secured.

During the day of July 29, the battery fired on machine gun nests that
obstructed the infantry's advance. Next afternoon it gave heavy response
to a German barrage, and continued with a concentration fire all
evening. Both nights the battery was called on to fire at one o'clock
for an hour or two. On the night of the 31st the men were at the guns
almost till morning, firing intermittently all the while.

This constant firing was accompanying our infantry in their advance. The
names of Sergy, Seringes, Hill 212, Meurcy Farm and the River Ourcq
represent terrible hours to the infantry of the Rainbow division--hours
whose awfulness we realized when the battery moved forward at noon
August 2. Skirting the town of Fere-en-Tardenois, which still drew
occasional shots from the enemy