Sleeping in the woods, the remainder of the Company was treated to a "strafing" by a Hun airman, who used his machine gun without effect, but during the early morning the artillery fire which followed resulted in casualties among the members of the 101st Machine Gun Battalion occupying the same woods. Relieved by the 42d Division, the Company left the line during the afternoon of that day, July 25, and hiked to the music of Eddie O'Neil's fife to shelter in Trugny Woods. There they slept for the first night in more than a week without being disturbed by the Hun. Tired, hungry and muddy from a week of advancing, the men gave proof of their inexhaustible spirit by singing over a few of the songs they had learned in training before they rolled up in their blankets for the night. None of the stories told that night had to do with heroism except here and there a reference to the invincible quality of their officers, but rather there was laughter at the incidents which contained elements of humor. Always the joy of the victor was uppermost. Crossing old battlefields, the Battalion marched the following day to woods just north of Chateau Thierry and there made preparations for a stay by erecting tents and various forms of shelter to shed the rain which continued to fall at regular intervals. Visits to Chateau Thierry began the next day, but the first men encountered trouble with the Military Police posted to guard the city. This difficulty was overcome, however, when the Company appeared in a body and demanded admission. Spending a part of the following days at drill and cleaning equipment served as a rest. During this time Lieutenant Condren, in command of the Company since its first trip to the line, was ordered to the United States as an instructor and was given a farewell by the Company. He was succeeded in command by Lieutenant Paton, who became a first lieutenant shortly afterward. On the 30th the Battalion marched to its old headquarters at Bezu Woods and then to Chamigny on the Marne River, just north of Laferte sous Jouarre. With the entire Battalion billeted in one village and bathing in the Marne easily accessible, visions of that deferred rest began to arise. Then came the announcement that all men in the division were to be allowed a leave of forty-eight hours "outside the divisional area." With Paris but a scant thirty miles distant, this meant a visit to the gay French capital, and tales of the damage being done there by the "Big Berthas" of the Hun did not impede the rush for passes which followed. Individual funds were swelled by pay for June, which soon came. Added to this was about thirty francs distributed to each man from funds raised for the purpose by the Spanish War Veterans of Connecticut. Thereafter all popular stories were introduced by the phrase "when I was in Paris."