Return to the Land

me from being transferred into replacement unit to fill in the Rainbow Division which was in heavy action at the time, and the poor boys that were transferred out of B. Co. were sent to the front in trucks and we read of their casualties later. On Sunday September 15 th we left Cammissoy at 1 o’clock with packs for Ligoniers. Here we spent the night in a mess hall and supper served at 10 o’clock in the night after making 18 kilometers and unfortunately I got very sick from drinking too much water and getting too hot. So, the captain took my pack and I carried my rifle in ranks so I told him I felt pretty yellow to let my captain carry my pact but I got better by morning. September 16 th , started out for another long hike of twenty kilometers to a station where we trained for the front line trenches with 40 men to the car which crowded us like sardines. Left at 12 o’clock in the night, and as we were moving along my sergeant Huff from Tennessee, fell from the car cutting his head off, the train running 2 miles before they were flagged down. His body was buried at Espinal, France. Leaving a wife and two twins - a boy and a girl. He spoke of them very often and when he felt so blue he wished that he was dead for he thought it was a great sin to kill the body by degrees. At 10p.m. 5 kilometers from Bruyers an enemy plane came over swooping down by the side of our train firing on the train crew then turning his plane distributing machine gun fire entirely down our train wounding one in my car - he seriously shot through the spine and hip fell over on me calling me to get my automatic rifle - excited me very much for I was expecting to be shot every minute - we had 10 killed and about 12 wounded. So very unlucky I was picked out for a detail to unload the train of supplies and was pulling some wagons up a hill the Hun came back over us - – so I jumped under a wagon while the other boys were debating whether or not it was an allied plane. So the plane turned very quick buzzing very low over us the rest of the boys jumped under the wagon on top of me so at this rate I felt very much relieved from the German plane just over me after the plane sped away into darkness. We crawled from under the old army ammunition wagon and pulled and pushed to the top of the little hill, The rest of my company was hiking out of town when suddenly the plane came over them and dropped a flare just in front of a cedar tree - casting a shadow back over the company which made excellent protection - so the lieutenant gave the command to take cover – so not knowing the boys jumped into a deep branch by the side of the road when afterwards they laughed heartily and said ‘it was fine’. When suddenly he appeared upon our line dropping several flares then everyone concealed himself - shortly the plane coming within 50 or 75 feet of the ground when one of the men said ‘all is well’. Of course, it did not look like all was well - While he was bombing, killing and wounding as fast as he could. After gaining the desired information that he was seeking he stole away into darkness. We finished the detail assigned, hiked until daylight to a little frog town and rested for two days. All the formations that we met during this time were met

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