f
this hill, one could look up at the head of the valley and see a German
battery, sitting just as it had been deserted after her defeat in 1916.
The wood that was brought in from the fallen timber was literally filled
with shrapnel.

The Vaux detail, when not busy, spent most of its time seeing the many
interesting places, even though at times it was a bit dangerous. From
the hill back of the dressing station one could see the Germans shelling
Ft. Douamont, two miles away. A very strange impression it left on one,
too. First the report of the German guns would be heard, and in an
instant the shell would burst near the fort, throwing dirt and rock high
into the air. Then the sound of the shell, which had already bursted,
could be heard going through the air.

While there were not many casualties through Vaux, over seven hundred
came through Deramee. The division had just been filled up with men who
had not been in France over a month or so, and who had not trained
longer than that in the States. The trenches of Verdun, which were
always filled with water and mud, seemed to be too much for them, and
many cases of influenza and pneumonia developed.

We had many gas cases, too, at Deramee. In one day a hundred and six gas
patients came through the dressing station. It was mostly mustard gas,
and the patients would come in by the ambulance load, temporarily blind
and feeling miserable. We could only bathe their eyes with a sodium
bi-carbonate solution, and use the sag-paste freely. During this rush
the only available ambulances were those of the S. S. U. 526, and the
drivers of that unit not being familiar with the roads, Corporals O'Dowd
and Bailey were kept busy guiding them around. We worked well after
midnight on that particular day before all the patients were evacuated.
The total number of gas patients numbered well over two hundred.

A sergeant and three men were stationed at Bellevue Ferme, a relay
station between Derame and Vaux. This station was situated on a hill
only a short distance from Verdun, and one could get a splendid view of
the old battered city from this place. There were eleven big naval guns
down below Bellevue on a narrow gage railway, and they surely made some
music when they fired. They drew fire from the Germans, too, but no
sooner would the Germans locate them than they were moved along the
track to another place.

Verdun was very close to the different stations, and many of us visited
the