The strain of the last few weeks at the front was of that terribly tense variety which cannot be shaken off. Strong in nerve and inured to hardships as the Company was, the incessant turmoil of the latter part of October proved too nerve-racking for a large number of men and they were ordered back to the hospitals just before the armistice. Casualties of the Company during all the fighting totaled eighty-six. Two thirds of these were caused within the last three weeks of the War. Thirty-two members of the Company were in positions on the line at 11 o'clock on November 11, 1918, and twenty-five of these were of the original personnel which left Niantic. Four fifths of the number usually assigned to gun squads were gone. When the relief by units of the 4th Division was complete at noon, November 12th, the Company left behind it the bloody fields of the Argonne-Meuse battle and began its long hike to the south. The trip was made in easy stages. Passing down through the valley of the Meuse the route followed took the Battalion to the Ninth Training Area, southwest of Neufchateau, and November 23 billets were assigned in the village of Poulangy, fifteen kilometers north of Chaumont, in Haute Marne. Reports circulated that the 26th Division would take its place as a unit of the Army of Occupation and all units shortly embarked on a program of training, the purpose of which was discipline. Close order drill took a prominent place in the schedule and this was relieved by machine gun work and manœuvers. Replacements were added to the Company on the trip back from the lines and many of those sent to the hospital returned in small groups or singly as the days passed. Intricacies of red tape failed to stop D Company men from waiting for the first dark night and eluding the hospital sentries so they could take the shortest route back to their friends. Many and varied were the stories of foiled M. P.'s and puzzled officers who tried to trace the runaways. Thanksgiving was made notable only through the efforts of Sergeant Foley, who purchased supplies at the commissary to add to the meager rations. No turkey adorned the tables of the mess hall that day, for the American Expeditionary Forces had increased in number from the bare hundred thousand of the previous year to more than two million men. Rain and snow made the mud deeper than ever for the weeks which followed and the drill schedule was carried out with difficulty. Inspections took place with the customary frequency, baths and delousing operations with issues of new clothing bringing the appearance of the command up to the point of perfection it had reached before entering the line.