HISTORY
OF THE 305th FIELD ARTILLERY
by
Charles Wadsworth Camp
1919
XX
THE ARGONNE
THE first intimation the 305th had that it would be
relieved was brought by advance parties from General
Garibaldi's Italian division. The sight of these strange
faces and uniforms indicated to everyone that the
regiment was going out for a well-earned rest. How
deceitful that opinion was, everyone remembers; but the
occasion was important and exciting. All our men of
Italian parentage greeted the newcomers with joy and
hospitality. There was much excited conversation. There
were more interpreters than could possibly be used.
While the Italians reconnoitered the Americans packed
-joyously, too. The prospect of billets, baths, and
cooked food was alluring after more than two months in
the line. The thought of quiet after a month of such
fighting as the Vesle had developed, was frankly welcome.
The movement
commenced on the night of September 15-16. No one had any
idea where he was going, except that it was to the rear.
And the belief in billets was touchingly firm.
Down roads on which they had advanced under shell fire,
the columns wound through the fragmentary and odorus
remains of Fismette and Fismes, past Les Pres Farm, at
which some fists were shaken, through Chery Chartreuve
for the last time, and to the crossroads just beyond
where the two battalions rendezvoused.
When the last man was up, the regiment took the road to
the left through Dravegny where our infantry was
regrouping, Cohan, and Coulognes, to the Bois de Meuniere
which was selected for the first bivouac. Between eight
o'clock in the evening and three in the morning the
column covered 23 kilometers.
After the exhausting work of the past two months -it was
a tired, nearly voiceless column that rode away from the
flares, the flashes, and the star shells. Many drivers
slept on their horses. The cannoneers, doomed to walk,
stumbled forward, only half awake.
There was a delay of nearly half an hour just before
reaching the bivouac. The column halted as if
automatically. The men rested where they were, deciding
it was quite like old times. Impatience seized a group of
officers, and they rode forward to learn, if they could,
why the halt continued. Ahead the road was open save for
one obstacle. A machine gun cart rested in the middle. On
the seat was a dozing driver. Attached to the cart was a
mule, supremely indifferent and content. The group
awakened the driver hurriedly.
"Reckon," he yawned by way of explanation,
"Jinny's decided she's gone far enough
tonight."
Jinny and her master suffered the application of united
brute force, and watched the column go by.
It was on this first stage that Battery F wandered
astray. In the dark it mistook the 306th column for our
own, and followed it for some time, until scouts located
it, explained the situation, and led it back to the fold.
During the day men fought the light and the noise again
for a little sleep, and at 8 o'clock moved out once more.
In the early morning the carriages rumbled across the
Marne on an engineers bridge at Vermeuil. The average
man's sensations were very different from those aroused
by his previous crossing at Chateau Thierry. And again
the river was a dividing line. The country seemed
immeasurably less disturbed to the south. The march lost
its sense of being made under the menace of aeroplanes.
And at Mareuil-le-Pont, where that twenty kilometer stage
ended, an officer brought joy with several motor trucks
assigned to the regiment for the transportation of a
certain number of dismounted men. Sixty were chosen from
each organization and put in charge of Lieutenants
Brassel, Putnam, and Copelin. Although it wasn't
generally known at the time, the destination of these
trucks was La Grange, three kilometers northwest of St.
Mennehould. The rest of the regiment, condemned to the
long hike, continued to foresee a glorious rest ahead.
The rumor was that the billets were four days' march
away.
Mareuil-le-Pont had other cheering features. The weather
still held fair. The country, not yet scourged by autumn,
was pleasant to men fresh from the gashed slopes and
devastated forests of battlefields. The gun park, the
picket lines, the straight rows of shelter tents were
arranged in pleasant fields; and in the village the
civilian population went about its business. There were
shops, for the first time since Doue, and they
specialized in a fresh cheese that nearly everyone added
to his rations. Best of all the column didn't form again
until 10 'clock of the morning of the 18th, so that there
was all day and a large part of the night for rest.
The roads now were not particularly congested. The
regiment traveled rapidly, which is far less fatiguing
than a snail's march with many halts.
It was generally known by this time that the French were
routing the column, and were keeping it off the congested
main lines of supplies. Therefore twenty kilometers were
covered by 11 o'clock on the morning of the 18th to the
summit of a high hill at Greuves, near Epernay.
The weather threatened here, but the place had matters of
interest. It was in the heart of the Champagne country,
and the wine was plentiful, cheap, and harmless, as far
as one could judge. Thirst was excusable after the last
two miles of that stage. The horses would have given up
the grade if the men hadn't encouraged them and put
shoulders to the wheels.
At 4 o'clock the next morning the regiment was on the
road again. Its route lay through the plains of the
Marne, a rich country sheltering farms and vineyards
which had not experienced the harsher touches of war,
There was an added spur to muscles and spirits this day.
For wasn't it the fourth stage? Wouldn't night see
every-one in the paradise of rest billets?
But the march closed towards noon at Ferme Notre Dame,
twenty kilometers southeast of Chalons.
"That's all right," men said wisely.
"They're putting another day on the march to make it
easier for us. We'll sleep tonight and get there
tomorrow."
Yet certainly no one would have chosen to stop at Ferme
Notre Dame to make things easier. It was a place at once
beautiful and abominable. There was only one well at some
distance from the main buildings, so , that it took five
hectic hours to water the animals once.
Word passed around that the start wouldn't be made until
late the next morning. It fitted in. A short march, then
rest, baseball, baths, delousing!
The regiment didn't move out in fact, until 6:30 of the
20th, but the stage lengthened into twenty kilometers,
and ended during the middle of the afternoon in meadows
near Cheppes, on the bank of the little river Guenelle.
For the first time doubt appeared in men's faces.
"What does it mean? " they asked one another.
"Ah," some answered carelessly, "we'll get
there tomorrow, or, if not, the day after. This isn't so
bad."
Nor was it for men or animals. The one bathed and washed
clothing in the river; the othergrazed contentedly in the
lush meadows.
Suspicions, too, were lulled when Captain Ried was
ordered by Brigade Headquarters to reconnoiter to the
south in the vicinity of Bassu for the next night's
bivouac. Swinging further to the south, of course, meant
rest. But the next morning that hope died. A change was
announced. The regiment wasn't going south, and French
officers appeared and warned commanders of the necessity
of seeking concealment most carefully from now on. At
5:30 on the afternoon of September 21st the regiment
moved out-to the northeast, and everybody knew it meant
the front again.
The attitude of the men in face of this abrupt change was
stimulating. No matter how brave or blood-thirsty he may
be, a soldier who expects rest and is suddenly shot back
into the line must experience a vivid disappointment. The
305th had the air of having foreseen such a fate. They
talked cheerfully of a huge, new offensive which couldn't
possibly be successful without the presence of our
regiment. If there was any grumbling it was done under
the breath.
The march was quick. After twenty-five kilometers the
column halted at 11 P.m. in Busy-le-Repos, and found a
confusion already suggestive of the front. The 304th had
bivouacked in and about the town. Few billets were
available for headquarters, and the nearby fields were
crowded. The regiment settled itself where it could.
If there had remained any doubts they would have been
dispelled here. Captain Olney, from Brigade Headquarters;
Captain Reed, from the First Battalion, Lieutenant
Wilhite, from the Second Battalion; Lieutenant Mots, from
Regimental Headquarters; and officers from the 304th and
306th were ordered forty kilometers forward by motor
truck to Les Islettes to make a reconnaissance, locate
positions, and figure data.
This party left on the morning of the22nd-the advance
guard of the Brigade into the Argonne.
At Les Islettes they were met by French corps artillery
officers, assigned to support the Americans. These
French-men had foreseen everything, which was fortunate
in view of the difficult and tricky Argonne terrain.
They took our officers to the point near Florent which
they had selected for the regimental echelon. They led
them, then, carefully forward almost to the front lines,
and pointed out positions for the First Battalion a
kilometer due east of La Chalade, and others for the
Second Battalion a kilometer and a half northwest of the
First.
These choices were clearly the best available, so the
reconnaissance party set to work checking up targets and
data.
While they figured in the forest the regiment resumed its
march, leaving Busy-le-Repos on the night of the 9.2nd to
bivouac a few hours the next day at Verri6res. The column
went on that night to the vicinity of St. Menne-hould.
For the moment Regimental Headquarters established itself
at the Florent echelon from where it superintended the
regrouping of the command and made arrangements for its
entry into position at the earliest possible moment.
The men who had come by truck from Mareuil-le-Pont had
had a good rest. Moreover, they were full of the gossip
of the sector, and possessed rumors without end about
what was going to happen.
The situation was, in many respects, fruitful of rumors.
Positive orders came from the highest command that no
American soldier was to risk exposure to enemy
observation unless he wore a French uniform. That made
scouts and observers near the front line masquerade. It
also meant that a surprise attack on a gigantic scale was
in the wind. Yet no one suspected then how big the scheme
really was. The terrain, indeed, seemed badly suited to
anything of the sort. War here had practically paused for
more than four years. The reason lay before every-one's
eyes-the woods and the hills of the Argonne.
Here, one of the few points where position warfare had
persisted, both the French and the Huns had developed
deep and elaborate trench systems. A large proportion of
the work was in cement. There was an elaborate net of
barbed wire. The prospect of attacking such defenses
head-on was not cheerful. It was whispered, however, that
our doughboys were waiting only for our support to go
over.
The situation, meantime, remained placid. There was very
little firing. As far as could be learned there were no
raids. Either the Bosche had been fooled and didn't know
what was gathering, or else he was waiting with a little
surprise of his own. A day or two now would show.
Both battalions moved into the positions selected near La
Chalade during the early morning of September 24th.
Regimental Headquarters at the same time went forward to
Ferme Ferdinand.
Those positions were trying on both officers and men, not
because of enemy harassing but because of their
exhausting natural difficulties. Out in front in No
-Man's Land, and for a considerable distance back the
forest survived only as a ghostly collection of stripped
tree trunks. Two thousand meters to the rear, however,
where our guns were placed, it had suffered less, and
there was a dense underbrush with practically no tracks.
The cannoneers, in consequence, had to chop a way in. The
pieces were unlimbered on the road, then manhandled a
half a kilometer through the brush to their emplacements.
That would have been hard enough by daylight. Before the
dawn it was a task for a Hercules with the vision of a
cat. Still it was done before sunrise and the work of
consolidation was got under way.
These positions were in a piece of forest known as the
Bois de Haut Batis. They were near some old French
reserve trenches in which our infantry waited for the
great moment. The doughboys didn't seem to know exactly
what was going to happen to them, or to care
particularly. The difficulties of the terrain failed to
appal them. They watched curiously the artillerymen as
they went about their labor.
Ammunition was the chief difficulty. The firing would be
intense. Consequently vast quantities of shells would be
required at the emplacements. Time was short. Word to
commence firing might come at any minute. Yet a point on
the road about 400 meters from the guns was the nearest
place to which projectiles could be transported on
wheels. The G. S. carts dropped them there, and the
battery men carried them one by one through the tangled
underbrush.
This work went on during September 9.4th and 25th, while
everyone wondered if the Bosche wouldn't observe such
diligence and compliment it with a little heavy fire.
An odd incident happened on the 25th. There hadn't been a
single high explosive burst near these positions, nor
were there any later, yet that day six gas shells fell
among the pieces of the First Battalion, or in the road
nearby.
One of these shells cost the regiment a valuable
messenger. Private Carlos Montgomery was thrown from his
bicycle by the explosion. Pieces of the casing struck him
in the knee, and before he could get his mask on the gas
bad burned his eyes severely. He was evacuated and
invalided to the States.
Yet within a few yards of where he was injured another
gas shell fell beneath a G. S. cart, which five men were
manhandling, and failed to injure or gas one of the five.
From the start in the Argonne it was clear that new difficulties of observation would be met. Here and there
were observatories cleverly concealed in trees or on the
heights above the Biesme River which ran through the
French trench system. Officers and men, disguised as
poilus, climbed into these, but found the outlook from
all unsatisfactory.
Communication, on the other hand, was comparatively
simple in the first Argonne position. Regimental
Headquarters, the two battalions, the observatories, and
the infantry were closely grouped. Later, when the
advance commenced, those in liaison with the front line
had a good deal of difficulty keeping headquarters
informed as to the details of a changing and hazardous
situation.
At last the orders came down. The regiment would open
fire at 2:30 on the morning of September 26th.
The volume of noise that burst forth at that moment was
greater than the Argonne had ever known. To the men
serving the guns the terrific uproar came as a surprise.
They had not suspected such a mass of artillery had been
collected for the drive.
The Germans, whatever they had learned, were stunned by
this merciless fire. It was continued until the infantry
went over shortly after daybreak. It shifted then to a
rolling barrage. It had finally, because of the rapid
advance of the infantry and shortage of ammunition, to
cease altogether for a time.
Runners brought back word of what was happening out in
front. Over the cement trenches and strong points,
through the mazes of barbed wire, and the natural
barriers of the forest, the infantry made that first day
an advance of three kilometers. The artillery would have
to move forward at once. The limbers were hurried down
and the pieces went over difficult roads through the old
French trench system three kilometers to the vicinity of
La Harazee
Regimental Headquarters established itself in the remains
of the town, and the two battalions went into position
side by side within two thousand meters of the new front
line.
There were dugouts here, large, luxurious, and fairly
safe. So the personnel of the three headquarters and the
batteries made themselves comfortable.
But, it developed, there would be no let up in the drive.
It would go on at once. New missions were assigned. It
was during those days that citizen officers and soldiers
displayed an exceptional cleverness and adaptability.
They located their guns and their targets on the map,
and, frequently without registration, as frequently
without observation even, blazed merrily away. It was
like firing a revolver in the dark yet when the regiment
moved forward it could check up on its accuracy. Then
dead Bosche, destroyed shelters, and machine gun
emplacements, a torn forest, offered their mute and
terrible praise.
The second day the infantry made two kilometers. After
that it slowed down for a time, so that by lengthening
the range the entire regiment remained in these
emplacements until the 30th.
On that morning the First Battalion decided to get
farther forward. Major Easterday left at 7 o'clock to
reconnoiter for new positions. Captain Reed was to follow
with the battalion at 10 to a point near the Abri de
Crochet. The infantry had captured this important and
pleasant place a day or two before. On the map it
appeared as a crossroads. It was, One estimated, scarcely
1000 meters from the front line.
That distance, it was expected, would soon be decidedly
widened. It was to some extent, but for a time now the
progress of our infantry, was reduced to nearly nothing.
There were a number of reasons. The effect of the first
rush was over. The men were tired. Every battalion had
had serious losses. While the Germans gathered themselves
for a stand, several divisions-probably nearly 200,000
men were rushed to their support. In addition to these
fresh odds, the country had become if anything more
difficult than at first. Then before the advance could
get fairly started once more the affair of the Lost
Battalion helped hold things up. But on this day of Major
Easterday's reconnaissance the advance continued, if
slowly.
The battalion halted short of the crossroads while
Captains Reed, Dana, and Ravenel, and Lieutenant Kane
rode forward to find the major. When, after some time,
they joined him, he said he had chosen positions a
kilometer and a half to the rear. Coming up the battery
commanders had seen these positions, and they were by no
means enthusiastic. Major Easterday as usual was ready to
weigh the opinions of his battery commanders. Captain
Reed meantime had pushed through a fringe of trees and
had seen positions on a slope to the right which he
believed had possibilities, if a small amount of cutting
should be done. Major Easterday approved and with the
battery commanders studied the ground more closely,
locating positions in which no cutting at all was
necessary. in the altogether delightful Abri de Crochet.
Delightful is really the word, for here, in a sort of
amphitheater, the Bosche during four years had developed
the rarest refinements of position warfare life. The
place possessed enormous and intricate dugouts, some of
them boring into the rock for nearly a hundred feet. They
were furnished. Food, even, had been left, ready to cook,
by the hurried Germans. Chlorinated water was forgotten
for a time, for the dugouts were well stocked with
mineral water, and some stronger liquids. Shower baths
invited. Fire wood was cut and piled. Tramways ran here
and there for convenience in bringing up supplies.
The network extended so far that battery command posts
fared as well as battalion.
The Battery A commander had an experience the first day
that illustrates as well as anything else the elaborate
scheme of the system. The B commander and he had their
eyes on the same dugout. Captain Ravenel got to it first.
Captain Dana chose another some distance away. Everyone
had long since learned to examine such places for traps.
Captain Dana and Lieutenant Stribling went in at once,
therefore, with flash lamps, and searched through the
galleries. They came to a door. They halted. For
something with a slow stealth moved beyond the panels.
In whispers the two officers discussed the situation. A
German spy might have been left behind to wait in this
comparatively safe retreat until he could slip through
the lines with a plan of the American artillery
dispositions. There was only one thing to do. The door
had to be opened.
The two loosened the pistols in their holsters. Captain
Dana raised the lamp. He flung the door wide with a
sudden gesture, prepared for emergencies. Across the
threshold stood, in much the same attitude, with much the
same suspicions, Captain Ravenel.