in
the machine-gun post at the top of the hill.

Private (later Corporal) Mangan was recommended for the D. S. C. by the
regimental commander "for volunteering to and aiding the French in
keeping open a telephone line running from a forward observation station
across the open to the rear. This on March 19 and again on March 20,
when the telephone line was repeatedly cut by an intense enemy
bombardment of heavy caliber shells from both guns and trench mortars."
The French cited Mangan for the Croix de Guerre for his conduct on this
occasion also.

Orders to move came that day. A few more shells landed within a few
yards of the position in the afternoon, and one end of
Laneuveville-aux-Bois received considerable shrapnel. But we pulled out
safely that evening, reaching Luneville at midnight.

Two days later the regiment left Luneville on a 120-kilometre hike to
the divisional area, in the vicinity of Langres, where the division was
to spend some time in manoeuvres. But the orders were countermanded
before the regiment had gone more than its first day's hike, on account
of the Germans' success in their first big offensive of the spring on
the northern front.

So the battery remained for a week at Remenoville, in readiness to
return to the front upon the receipt of orders. During those seven days
of sunshiny weather, in the bright warmth of early spring, the men
basked in ease and comfort. Gun drill for the cannoneers and grooming
for the drivers occupied the mornings. The afternoons the men had to
themselves, for games of horseshoes, writing letters to make up for lost
time at the front, baths in the cold brook, and washing clothes in the
village fountain. Eggs and potatoes and milk were abundant in the
town--until the battery's consumption depleted the supply--and the men
ate as often in some French kitchen as in their battery mess line. Some
boys "slipped one over on the army," too, by sleeping between white
sheets in soft big beds, renting a room for the munificent sum of one
franc a day, instead of rolling up in their blankets in the haymow where
they were billeted.

The following Saturday, the battery hiked to Fontenoy-la-Joute, on its
way back to the front. Easter Sunday, March 31, was spent there, the
band playing in front of the "mairie," on the steps of which the
chaplain held the church services. Rain fell intermittently in a
depressing drizzle. Pulling out in the afternoon, the battery reached
the spot th