s
light task as seriously and as determinedly as they did far heavier and
more vital ones later on, made up for lack of numbers, and the enemy was
worsted in every encounter. The discipline and care that was the rule in
this comparatively easy work during the three and a half months in
Lorraine formed the basis of the division's splendid record in the big
battles of later months, and was the chief reason why the division,
though engaged in all the major operations of the American army, and, in
addition, at the vital point of General Gouraud's army in Champagne, in
the biggest battle of the war, spending a greater number of days at the
front than any other division, has not so big a casualty list as some
other divisions.

Since both positions occupied by the platoons were known to the enemy,
and our only safety lay in maintaining his belief that they were
abandoned, no one was allowed to enter or leave them during the daytime.
At first so rigid was this rule that we could not even go to Montigny
for meals. Instead, the raw rations were divided among the sections, and
the men cooked them as best they could in their mess kits over the
little stoves that were in each abri. But cooking could only be done at
night, lest the smoke betray us. So seven or eight hungry men, having
eaten hard-tack and a little cold food during the day, crowded around
the little stove from nightfall till early morning, doing their
unskilled best to make something edible out of hard-tack, canned corned
beef, canned tomatoes, potatoes, a slab of bacon, coffee, some sugar,
and occasionally some beef cut up into small slices or cubes. The result
was that the men got neither much sleep nor much nourishment, and after
about ten days of this sort of living, the meals were cooked in the
kitchen at Montigny and then carried in heat-containing cans to the
positions.

Even when conditions were thus bettered, there were still heavy inroads
on sleep by the large amount of sentry duty required. In a clump of
bushes at the top of the mound in which was dug the position, was placed
an indicator board, similar to that at Laneuveville-aux-Bois, on which
were marked several barrages. From 6 p. m. to 6 a. m., a sentry stood at
this post watching the horizon for red rockets signaling for a barrage.
In addition, one man, and sometimes two men, had to be on watch in each
gun pit, ready to fire a barrage the instant it was called for. For a
time this required four hours