' watch every night for each man. Later
this was reduced to two, or at most three hours a night.

April 6 Battery E commenced work on a new position halfway on the road
from Montigny to Reherrey. Under the direction of a camouflage non-com.
from the engineers, wires were stretched on top of stakes, forming a
frame not unlike that of a greenhouse roof, which was covered by slashed
burlap on a backing of chicken netting, a species of camouflage
manufactured by the French by the millions of square yards. It hid
whatever was beneath it, and cast no shadows, and blended in tone with
the grassy fields around. When the camouflage was up, a trench eight
feet deep was dug the length of the position. From it saps were started
downward and forward from the trench. These carried the work into solid
rock, necessitating drilling and blasting every foot of the way. At the
same time the gun pits and ammunition shelters were begun. Work was slow
because of the hardness of the rock, and the available men were few.
After staying a few days in Reherrey, the squad of engineers had moved
to Montigny. There, in billet No. 19, they and the extra cannoneers,
sent up later from the horse-lines, lodged. To speed the work, some of
the gun crews came from the positions each day. After several weeks,
drivers were sent from the horse-lines to exchange places with some of
the cannoneers. A well designed wooden tablet, the work of Nixon, was
placed at the entrance to the position, reading:

CONSTRUCTED
BY
BATTERY E, 149th F. A.
IN ACTION
A. D. 1918

The gun pits were rushed to completion in the last days of April, so
that they might be occupied by the guns of Battery D in an attack that
came May 3. In the preceding days the French had moved up heavy
artillery in support, and several batteries of 75's, of the same 232d
French regiment which had been our neighbors in the Luneville sector,
occupied the meadows to the left of our new position.

Our firing had been only occasional and limited to brief reprisals up to
this time. The first platoon, at 163, had suffered most in reply,
receiving over 400 shells one day. Now a heavy bombardment was planned,
to push back the enemy lines a short way and safeguard our own
occupation of "No Man's Land." On May 2, some of the batteries kept
pounding away all day, cutting barbed wire entanglements and clearing
away obstacles in the infantry's advance.

The following morning