THE FINISHED PRODUCT.
The Grand Finale came on October 1st, after a brigade problem had been executed, for
this latter extensive preparations were made, all six of our batteries were taken to the artillery
range, skillfully placed in camouflaged positions – every sort of diversified type of firing was
used. During this problem, in all, about 8000 rounds were shot during the afternoon and night.
Indeed we believed that we had been very close to the western front while this ordeal was going
on, for forty-eight guns thundered at once in a two regiment barrage. The sky was alight with the
flashes of the guns and to make matters more realistic a heavy rain started in during the
afternoon and everything was thoroughly drenched. It was like a taste of real service. After the
completion of this problem we were declared the finished product and ready for the front.
ST. MIHIEL BOUND.
Two weeks before the course ended the Brigade Commander, together with the
operations officers of all the regiments went to the front to look over the sector we were destined
for. According to schedule we were to join the Ninetieth Division, which was then holding down
the right sector of St. Mihiel. It was with a great deal of enthusiasm that we regarded the
possibility of getting to the front. For some days the maps of this sector had been studied.
Though never having been there, Pont-a-Mousson, Pagny, Death Valley and other land marks of
the Ninetieth Division sector were quite familiar to us.
RIDING IN COMFORT.
On the 9th and 10th of October the regiment moved out of Camp Hunt in five sections,
riding upon the well known French “Trains Unique”. Despite the former unpleasant experience
with French trains, there was no member of the regiment who was adverse to boarding the
“Galloping Goose” as French trains had come to be known to the soldiers, for everyone, this
time, expected to be carried straight to the front. Like all soldiers who had never been to the
front, we believed it to be the most desirable thing. This trip was far more pleasant than the one
from Cherbourg to Camp Hunt. The men had much more room and as rolling kitchens had been
installed on flat-cars, something hot was served for each meal, The weather was pleasant and
everyone was in the highest spirits. The only near disaster of the trip occurred at Orleans, when
Captain Wills and Captain Bennett, in search of castles and sights, wandered too far from the
train and only caught it by hard sprinting.
FEARFUL OF AIR RAIDS.
Three days later the first train arrived in the Andelot (Haute-Marne) billeting area. The
personnel on the first train labored under the illusions that they were very close to the front, if
not In No Man’s Land itself. The men were reminded that the town had been raided by air
planes the previous night. Orders were given that no lights would he struck – no flashlights
used. So the men, believing they must be in the midst of things, set about unloading materiel and
animals in a subdued fashion. The tenseness of the situation could be felt on all sides. However,
all illusions concerning the propinquity of any danger from Boche or air raids were presently
shattered when a guard belonging to troops already stationed in the town was found burning a
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