artment of Allier, traveling Northeast, through
Commentry, Villefranche, le Montel and Moulins.

Daylight was breaking by the time Moulins was sighted. Stop was made
at Paray le Monial from 7:30 to 8 a. m., when breakfast was served
from the flat truck dining car.

The next day, November 15th, was spent traveling through a beautiful
stretch of country. The railroad ran almost parallel with the Boninoe
river, a branch of the Loire. Through pasture lands and farming
country, the road stretched along Palinges, Montceau, Changy, Beaune.
A lay-over for lunch was made at Nuits St. Georges at 1 p. m.

In the afternoon stop was made at Dijon, where the troops got a chance
to detrain and partake of refreshments that a corps of French Red
Cross workers served at the station.

Soon after leaving Dijon darkness fell upon the troop special. The sun
had not yet gone to rest. The famous tunnel between Sombernon and
Blaizy-Bas had been penetrated. This tunnel, on the road to Paris, may
be a note-worthy piece of engineering skill, but its designers
evidently never dreamed of a troop special of thirty or forty old box
cars, many with rust-corroded doors that could not be closed, whizzing
through; leaving the passengers to eat up the exhaust from the smoke
stacks of the locomotive.

At this time the troop train was headed Northwest, toward Paris, but
hopes of getting near Gay Paree were soon shattered. When Nuits sous
Ravieres was reached, switch over to another branch was made and the
direction then was Northeast, toward Chaumont, the A. E. F.
headquarters town.

Stop for night mess was made at Les Laumes, where orders were also
issued for the troops to get their packs ready as the outfit would
detrain in about three hours time.

A heavy frost developed that night and the troops almost froze in the
boxcars. After delay in getting started from Les Laumes the journey
continued over a considerable longer period than three hours. Laigne
and St. Colombre were passed and La Tracey, the detraining point, was
reached at 3 a. m., Saturday, November 16th, 1918.

Reveille was not sounded until 6 a. m. During the interim most of the
troops left the boxcars and built fires in the railroad yards, around
which they sought warmth during the early morning hours.

The hustle to get all the materiel from the flat trucks started at 6
o'clock. A section of a motor transportation corps was dispatched to
La Tracey to convey the regiment to its new b