place, the whole 12 or 15 kilometres of
front held by the 35th Division has come to be termed the "Wesserling
Sector". The front line itself was about ten kilometres east of
Wesserling.

Practically the whole front in Alsace was made up of what were called
"quiet" sectors, to distinguish them from "active" sectors. Alsace is
mountainous and the mountains are usually heavily timbered. The valleys
are narrow, and the main ones run north by south. The front lines also
ran north by south, parallel to the valleys. Hence, neither side could
gain ground without paying dearly for it. By a sort of mutual
understanding, both the French and the German troops had come to regard
Alsace as a place to rest, after the strenuous campaigns on other
fronts. When our fresh troops came, they made Alsace a less quiet front,
but for the most part they merely held their ground, as the French had
done for nearly four years after having pushed the Germans back part way
through Alsace in August, 1914. It was a final training area for
American divisions that had just arrived overseas.

Ambulance Company 139 maintained its headquarters at Ranspach for
exactly one month. During that time, however, most of the company was at
the front. Those who were left did not have to drill, for we were within
aerial observation and no formations could be stood. The trenches were
scarcely five miles away, tho by the winding road up through the
mountains it was twice that far. The main diversion during the day was
watching the anti-aircraft batteries shoot at the Boche aeroplanes. On
the morning of July 3rd we were rewarded for our patience, upon seeing
our first Boche plane fall after being hit. It must have been 5000 ft.
in the air when hit, and made a straight nose dive for the earth, but
before it landed, it righted itself and spun around like a leaf until it
hit the ground.

Every evening we would have our supper contested. An old man and his dog
grazed a herd of goats during the day, and brought them home in the
evening, just when we were eating. They passed right by our kitchen and
tried their best to help themselves to our supper. As the goats passed
by their respective houses, the dog would separate them and run them
into their own yards. In the morning, at the sound of a horn, the goats
would run out of their houses and join the collective herd.

Canes became the style from the buck private up, and every evening we
would go walking, Wesserling, St. A