The history of Company B, 311th Infantry in the World War — John Shaqi
The history of Company B, 311th Infantry in the World War
History
The history of Company B, 311th Infantry in the World War
United States. Army. Infantry. 311th regiment, 1917-1919. Co. B; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- United States
Just as the daylight began to thin the inky mist, the train halted, and
the word was passed along the line to debus. Wet, shivering, miserable,
“B” Co. struggled hastily into clammy shoes and slung their heavy,
soggy packs. As we formed on the side of the road, the busses started
again, and rolled swiftly off into the shadows ahead, leaving us on the
road, with heavy woods on either side.
We marched down the road to an open field on the left. Here a railroad
track entered the corner of the wood. We turned off up the track, and
about 300 yards along we came upon the 2nd battalion bivouacking. We
went on just beyond them, and were allotted our own share of squishy
ground and drenched underbrush.
A limited number of fires were allowed, and we made ourselves as
comfortable as we could under the circumstances. I was detailed on
O. D. and spent a busy day dissuading the regiment from straggling
all over the road and open fields. All knew that a big attack was in
preparation, and that it was important that the concentration be kept
under cover from the enemy’s aircraft. But some men apparently couldn’t
compree that we weren’t roosting in that bally old dysentery generator
of a wood for sheer sport.
Showers fell intermittently during the day, but nothing like the
previous day’s deluge. At about 4 P. M. there was an officers’ call,
and we were warned to march at 7 P. M. Co. Commanders were issued maps,
and we learned that our present bivouac was in the Bois de la Cote en
Haye, east of Tremblecourt.
About 5 P. M., six French tanks came clanking down the road, did a
Squads Left, waddled across the fields and disappeared over the brow
of the hill, toward the rumble of intermittent artillery fire in the
distance that meant the front.
The 312th Inf. was bivouacked on the other side of the railroad track,
and the rest of the division was hidden in the woods near by. Across
the main road was a great artillery ammunition dump, big enough to blow
up ten divisions if a bomb ever hit it. But I kept this to myself, and
what a soldier doesn’t know doesn’t worry him. He has enough to worry
about anyhow.
The kitchens came up late in the afternoon, and we got outside of a
ration of hot slum before dark.
By 6:45 P. M. we had rolled packs, and were ready to hit the road
again. I went to sleep on the ground, with my pack on my back, and was
awakened by Dunn to find it nearly dark, and the battalion ready to
move off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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