Through Thil, Nully, Blumery to Dommartin le St. Pere the men trudged on a twenty-one kilometer march Saturday, March 23. Conversation with people at that place revealed that it was being used by the French as a refuge for many of the peasants driven from their homes near the Belgian border. Sunday's trip was to Nomecourt, a distance of thirteen kilometers. The following day the route lay through Joinville and Poissons to Maconcourt. The next day twelve kilometers more found the Battalion in Chambroncourt and Wednesday, March 27, Vesaignes sous Lafauche with its fleeting promise of a rest came into view, completing a hike which had required six marching days and during which over sixty-five miles had been covered. The journey had not been tiresome, for the weather had been favorable with the exception of two days. The beauties of France, hidden by shell holes and barbed wire in the vicinity of the lines and mud and snow during the Company's early training period, had begun to be evident in the smiling countryside which greeted the men on their trip. Fields were either green with new crops or brown where the earth had been freshly plowed, trees were showing the bright green of new leaves and the white roads in excellent repair which traversed the entire section seemed as ribbons binding together the tiny villages snuggled in the nooks among the hills, with neatly trimmed hedges and backgrounds of stately poplars along the banks of the little streams, producing an impression of peace and love in contrast with the hate and destruction of the front. Assigned to barracks on the edge of the town, D Company proceeded to the task of unpacking barracks bags and settling down for a stay. This was rudely interrupted within two days when the smashing attacks of the Hun hordes against the British had met with such success that General Foch, in command of the Allied armies, found it necessary to use all available reserves. To this end the 102d Machine Gun Battalion, with the rest of the 26th Division, was ordered to the sector northwest of Toul as a relief for the 1st Division, which, with its record of nearly three months training in the lines, was needed where serious activity was impending. CHAPTER VII THE TOUL SECTOR Orders on the morning of March 30 sent the Battalion to Trampot, about fifteen kilometers away. There Easter Sunday was spent in the rain, which had prevailed for two days, as was customary when the organization moved. On April 1 the men with their guns and ammunition were loaded into trains of motor trucks for the trip to the front, the carts and kitchen having started the journey by road the previous day.