| Chapter 1 |
With the 89th Division At sundown, tired, hungry and thirsty, we reached the troops of the 89th Division on the St. Mihiel sector, whither we had been sent to join as a replacement. We were assigned in small units to different companies. I was sent to the Pioneer Platoon of Headquarters Company, 356 Infantry Regiment. After eating a cold bite, thoroughly exhausted, I soon fell asleep. Our little pup tents were pitched on a hillside only a few miles from where the great guns were belching forth their hail of destruction. The following morning at dawn we began work on a dugout for ourselves and a large one for the whole platoon. We had to dig in ground composed of almost solid rock. We wielded picks and shovels until our hands were red with blisters. These dugouts answered their purposes until it began to rain. I remember one night we awoke to find ourselves lying in a regular running stream with water aslo dripping from above us. It was here that I saw my first German shell burst as the Huns were putting a few over us way up in the air. I still remember how those first shells sounded: a low whistling, moaning sound, increasing to that of the rumbling roar of a train, followed by a heavy dull explosion. On the eventful night of the 29th of September the roll call was given. We were again inspected, fully equipped and ready for fighting. I wrote mother a few farewell lines and again I read the little scraps of her letter I carried in an old match case - "Be brave," she said, "and everything will come out allright." I always felt that she knew best, and was strengthened by those little words of comfort. We had seen German shells bursting above us, but now, soon, soon, we were to be in the midst of that chaos of terror. |