French people dropped flowers from buildings along the routes taken by the Yanks of the 56th Coast Artillery Regiment as it paraded through Clermont-Ferrand shortly before going to the front, according to privates George E. Green of #49 Alfred Street a member of Battery B. Private Green whose brother, Lester Green, is also in the service, tells an interesting story of the doings of the Regiment from the time it left Fort Wright.
"We went over on the Olympic, which was at the time the second largest boat afloat. We were seven days in making the trip, landing safely at Brest. We stayed there for three days at the end of that time being packed into freight cars for our journey. About half the size of the American freight cars. There were 40 of us in each one, and you can judge how much room we had."
Ride Three Days
"For three days and nights we wrote it in the freight cars. We had to take turns at sleeping. Corned beef and hard tack were the only food we had. We finally arrived at Clermont-Ferrand the, a good-sized city with a population of 150,000. After two days there, we marched to a little town called Le Cendre. It was too small for the whole regiment, so batteries A and B stayed there while the rest moved out to other little towns nearby."
"There was an interval of three days before our big guns are arrived. The officers kept us busy hardening up for the front. Three times a week we had to hike 20 or more miles with full packs on our backs. The rest of the week we were drilled nine hours a day."
Drill On Guns
"It was not so hard when the big guns are arrived. We drilled with them for three months. Four miles from Le Cendre is a big Mountain, said to be the largest in France. There we had target practice for three days. We made some great hits. Then we started for the front."
"On the fourth of July, just before we left for target practice, we paraded in Clermont-Ferrand. Our airplanes flew overhead, the aviators doing all sorts of stunts. The women and girls, some laughing and others crying, drop bushels of flowers on us from the big buildings as we went through the main streets."
Arrived At Front
"Three more days and nights were consumed in our trip to the front. We detrained at La Fert, arriving there early in the morning and began early, the work of unloading the guns and tractors. These tractors have Caterpillar wheels and will travel anywhere. They pulled our guns about."
"These Guns were French, they call them 155 mm GPF and they are about 6 in. in diameter and weigh 15 tons or more. These Guns have a range of 13 miles. Each Battery had four of the guns, 20 trucks and four Tractors."
"From La Fert we moved to a town called Charley, which we occupied two days. There we could hear the booming of the big guns and at night the sky was lighted with shells beginning to arrive. The Germans shelled us with shells ranging in size from three to ten inches. Their airplanes came over, dropping bombs, some of which when they struck, made holes in the earth 10 and 12 ft. deep."
"I saw some of these bombs dropped by a railroad track," said Private Green. "One would lift a freight car from the rails and toss it 20 ft. away. After the German planes had finished the work of dropping bombs, they turned their machine guns on us, and one could hear the bullets whistling by through the trees which screened our position."
Finally Chase Huns
Private Green said the Germans did everything possible to wipe out the regiment. The boys stuck to their jobs, however, and after a month of constant action had chased the Huns back 20 miles. After that the Artillerymen, who were with the First Army, were moved to another front, being about eight days traveling. But at the second front, the French released the 56th Artillery and the Regiment moved down into the Argonne Forest.
The Regiment was placed about 12 mi. from Verdun, where the French halted the Germans in 1914, losing 500,000 men. "We had some job ahead of us," said Private Green. "The Germans had been in the woods since 1914 and were heavily-armed. Some of their dugouts were 60 ft. deep."
Argonne Forest Battle
"The light field artillery started firing into the Germans and the American drive open there on September 26th. At 11 O'clock that night we opened up with the big guns and the ground shook with the concussion. You can bet that we started the Huns running and daybreak found them in retreat. But it was more than a month before we had cleared the woods of Germans. The Argonne Forest is very dense. We chased them out into the open fields, where we could get a look at them and there we made it hot for them and were up there until after the signing of the Armistice, being near Sedan, a big city near the Belgian border. We would have swept them off the earth if not for the Armistice being signed."
"War is surely an awful grave." Private Green when on. "I have seen men blown to pieces. I have seen a time when 100 Americans could not move up in advance, so one of us went ahead clearing the way of bodies."
Tough Trip Home
"Two days out from Brest, France the USS South Dakota was struck by a storm. A good many of us thought we would never reach this country. Waves dashed clear over the ship which did everything but turn over and sink. One of the waves at least 45 ft. high, came over and smashed the pilot house, injuring at the Captain of the ship and some of his officers."
Boxing matches, motion pictures, minstrel shows and music served to keep up the spirits of lads of the 56th Artillery. Some of the boys slept nights on the deck of the ship.
Thousands of leaflets of German propaganda were dropped on the 56th Artillery in the Argonne Forest by the German aviators. |
