en so many and such a variety as confronted
us now. Here was visible evidence that we were engaged in something big.

At 3:30 a. m., we unlimbered our guns and pointed them across a deep
chalk trench in front of us. The ammunition from the caissons was piled
beside them. As day broke we pitched the flat-tops. The first platoon
was located about 200 meters to the right of the second platoon. An
equal distance on either side were located platoons of D and F
batteries. Thus were the regiment's guns lined along the trench for a
distance of two kilometres. To the right flowed the Suippes river, on
which was situated the nearest town, Jonchery-sur-Suippes. Several
kilometres in front, the church steeple of St. Hilary-le-Grand served as
a point for calculating the guns' fire.

The regiment was in a reserve position, just back of a gently sloping
crest, on the forward side of which were the strongly fortified
entrenchments of the front lines. One of our earliest fires practiced in
gun drill was "firing at will" at imaginary German tanks appearing over
this crest. At that time such a possibility was not without its thrills,
for the four previous German offensives, on the northern part of the
line, had been strikingly successful that spring, and the one which we
were to help stop was known to exceed in magnitude any previous attempt.
General Gouraud's exhortation to the French Fourth Army, to which our
division was attached, was to "Stand or die!" This his men were ready to
do, but how successfully they would withstand the repeated rushes of the
German hordes, whose numbers had proved superior in the north, no one
could be sure. Two reserve positions were picked, to which the battery
might fall back in case the enemy broke through, and Lieutenant
Anderson, Sergeant O'Meara and Sergeant Suter spent three days exploring
by-roads and paths through the barbed wire for short cuts to be used in
case it became necessary to fall back. Fortunately, "falling back" was
something the 42d Division never had to do.

Our first work was to dig a gun-pit beneath our flat-top, with a short
shelter trench for the gun crew on each side. The pit was dug nearly
three feet deep, and the soil piled high in sand-bags on the sides, for
additional protection. The gravel and lime, into which our picks and
shovels went, seemed as hard as mortar. Under the hot July sun, the men
shed all the garments they could, and still the perspiration poured down
their b