ppointed moment, our guns began to bang away. For the next two hours
and forty-five minutes, the noise was deafening. Batteries of whose
existence we had not the slightest suspicion were firing near us. Every
hillock and clump of trees seemed to blaze with gun flashes. Joined with
the constant bark and bang of the 75's near by was the deep thunderous
roar of heavier cannon in the distance.

At 10 o'clock the firing began to die away. Half an hour later only a
few shots at long intervals could be heard. Fatigued with their
strenuous and racking work, the men eagerly attacked the mess just then
brought up to them. Nearly all were a little deaf from their guns'
racket. A few, on the gun crews, were totally oblivious to all sound
whatsoever, and could comprehend only signs.

[Illustration: B. C. Detail at Observation Post near Ancerviller]

[Illustration: Cook Boisacq Hears Thrilling Tales at the O. P.]

[Illustration: Horseshoers' Shop at the Merviller Horse-lines]

[Illustration: Aeroplane Scouts Wouldn't See this Pup-Tent]

The first published account of an engagement of the 42d Division was
brief and anonymous. In the Paris edition of the "New York Herald" of
March 22, 1918, at the end of a column on the first page telling of the
decoration of Corporal Alexander Burns and other members of the regiment
appeared this paragraph, under date of March 21:

"Members of the American force made a raid last night. Following a long
barrage, the boys went over in good shape, but the German trenches were
deserted, the long heavy Allied barrage having driven every one out. No
American was hurt or killed."

The enemy's reply to us did not come till the next morning. Roused at 4
to stand by the guns, the cannoneers had scarcely occupied their posts
when shells began to drop dangerously near. Captain Robbins ordered
everyone into the abris till the shelling ceased. Half an hour later we
went out to find that a gas shell had made the officers' abri and
vicinity untenable, all our telephone wires were cut, and shell
fragments had torn up things here and there. How Nickoden fared, who had
been out at the rocket post on the hill-top during it all, we learned
when he was relieved shortly after. Hearing not a sound, he was aware
that shells were falling near only when he saw them plow up the ground
within a few hundred feet of him. Corporal Buckley was wounded by a
shell fragment and Private McCarthy was badly gassed that morning,