The Delta of the Triple Elevens : $b the history of Battery D, 311th Field Artillery, United States Army, American Expeditionary ForcesBachman, William Elmer
History
The Delta of the Triple Elevens : $b the history of Battery D, 311th Field Artillery, United States Army, American Expeditionary Forces
Bachman, William Elmer
United States. Army. Field Artillery Battalion, 311th. Battery D; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- United States
Denise Ferron, with brown eyes and brown hair, was born April 25,
1914, the daughter of Madame Vve Ferron, of Fericy, Seine et Marne,
France.
Mr. and Mrs. Ferron had just established a butcher shop when war came
on. The father was then mobilized at the first call. He went to the
front where he was wounded. In 1916 at Verdun, he held the Croix de
Guerre and was mortally wounded in April, 1918.
When he joined his regiment his wife was left with no resources,
having given all of their earnings for the purchase of the butcher
shop. The difficulty to find meat and some one to help her, forced her
to give up her business.
She had another child, Simonne, who was born July 8, 1917. This
blonde, grey eyed brother of Denise was cared for by another A. E. F.
unit. As her children were too small, Mme. Ferron was not able to take
any work and her only means of support was a military allocation
amounting to 105 francs monthly.
Although his body rests in the American military cemetery at La
Courtine, France, the memory of James J. Farrell is revered in unison
by all who knew him and the family of Vve Memoine, Ville Billy, St.
Lunaire, Ille et Vilaine, France, who have come to know him in spirit
since the youngest son, Georges, was adopted. Georges Lemoine was born
February 1, 1915. He had five other brothers and sisters, viz; Pierre,
Louis, Marie, Marcelle and Anna, the oldest 15 and the youngest 6
years.
These children were in a truly lamentable plight. Their father was
a farmer but on such a small scale that what he got from his small
piece of land was insufficient for the needs of his family. He was
conscripted but sent back because he was the father of six children.
He had never been strong, and during the prolonged stay at the front
tuberculosis developed, from which he died on May 18, 1917.
Unfortunately his wife contracted this terrible illness. But before
she realized her plight she had taken over a neighboring farm, for she
was anxious to shoulder her burden as well as possible. This overtaxed
her strength and hastened her decline.
These are passing incidents of the period the battery spent in Benoite
Vaux. Other incidents of import to the battery were the erection of
stables and the conduct of horse shows.
When the outfit arrived at Benoite Vaux there were stable
accommodations for some of the batteries encamped out in the woods but
Battery D, stationed in the village, was without accommodation for the
horses. For the first few weeks of the stay the horses were kept out
in the open on picket lines. The weather and the mud became very
severe and temporary stables were secured in a wooded section near
where Battery C was stationed. These stables were about two kilometers
from the battery billets. While the horses were stabled there the
soldiers had to hike the two kilometers three times a day and drive
the horses to the watering troughs in the center of the village.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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