also an off day for Battery D. Passes to visit
the town were issued to half the outfit from reveille to 3 p. m.,
while the other fifty per cent were given the privilege from 3 p. m.
until 11 p. m.

Word was received that the regiment was to entrain at La Courtine on
November 14th. Preparations were immediately made for a farewell
banquet. After great preparation by the cooks and the K. P.'s, the
banquet was staged at 6 o'clock on November 13th, with stewed chicken
as the mainstay of the menu. A number of the Y. M. C. A. girls were
guests at the banquet.

Thursday, November 14th, the regiment had the task of getting its
materiel to the station at La Courtine for transportation by rail to a
new billeting area of France. No one could guess where it was to be or
what the future held in store for the troops in the way of service and
training during the months that were sure to intervene before it was a
question of homeward bound.

The regiment was well supplied with materiel, but had no horses. A
number of motor trucks were sought out to haul the heavier of the
supply wagons. It was necessary for the soldiers to furnish the power
to drag the guns and caissons from the camp to the station, a distance
of over a mile.

The materiel was loaded on flat cars at the station. Then the soldiers
were ushered to side-door Pullmans once again. Bed ticks were not
emptied of their straw before leaving camp. Thus the soldiers entered
the box cars with their bed ticks as a mattress to recline on the
floor of the car.

The first section of flat cars and box cars with Battery D left La
Courtine at 2:30 o'clock. Another seeing France by box-car trip was
on.

An improvement in mess enroute was experienced during this trip.
A flat car was used for the rolling kitchen. Hot meals were prepared
in transit. Back over the same route, through Feletin and Abusson, to
the junction point at Busseau, the troop special proceeded, reaching
the junction at 6:30 o'clock when mess call was sounded. Here the
first section of the train waited until 8:27 for the arrival of the
second section at the junction point.

It was dark when the trip was resumed. Deprived by the darkness from
sight-seeing privileges, all that remained for the troops to do was to
stretch out on the floor and try to sleep. The nights were long and
dark while traveling in a French box car.

During the night the towns of Jarnages and Montlucon were passed. The
train entered the Dep