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125 the WesterN FroNt, octoBer 13–30, 1918 As the 142d Infantry filtered into the lines on the night of October 13, 1918, they were certainly not aware that in several weeks they would have to attack such a strongly fortified position as Forest Farm. Lieutenant Sayles’ weapons platoon dug in on the side of a hill and managed to bring up straw from Vaux to line their holes. Several soldiers also found doors to use as roofs over their fox holes, but it turned out they had taken the doors from regimental headquarters and Sayles ordered them to return them. For the most part, the soldiers waited and tried to stay comfortable and warm. Whenever he went to sleep, Sayles wrapped his scarf around his stomach and wrapped his feet in a rain slicker and slept in the same hole as another man so they could keep each other warm. Over the next several days, Sayles’s platoon dug a “long gallery” into the side of the hill, covered the floor with straw, used branches to keep the sides from caving in, and created an “arbor” that kept some of the rain out, although the “roof always dripped somewhere, and little rivulets broke out under the deep mat of fallen leaves that covered the ground.” The dugout was large enough to hold half of his platoon, who would crowd into the dugout to eat. At the top of the hill, above their “gallery,” he placed two 37mm cannon, ready to fire across the river on German positions to the north. Not everyone had it so great, as part of Company I dug into an area that was “so flat it was nearly a lake,” and the soldiers lived “in the slush,” trying to keep the rain away with half tents stretched over their holes, and covered the bottoms of their holes with blankets and overcoats scrounged from dead Germans. Still, as one man commented, “Everything oozed water.”1 Sometimes the men ate well. Occasionally, field kitchens got them a hot stew 6 126 TheY CALLeD TheM SOLDIeR BOYS of dried potatoes and carrots mixed with corned beef, and infrequently they received sugar, which they ate on bread and considered a “rare delicacy.” As for the bread, Lieutenant Sayles recalled that each loaf had the date stamped on it and that it was so tough it could be stockpiled, covered with a tarpaulin, and last for days. As he recalled, the bread “always tasted good when it could be dried out over a fire,” and it was “fine with jam.” Besides eating the bread, some soldiers found creative uses for it, such as sticking it on their bayonets when marching, calling it a “practical method for carrying the dishpan sized hunk of fodder,” and that “it also would keep rain drops out of” rifles. Other foods the soldiers devoured included condensed milk on bread and “oleomargarine cut in thick slabs which was eaten like cheese.” Just as often, the food did not keep warm on its way to the front and the men received cold coffee and stew which congealed into “a solid mass with a hard layer of grease on top.”2 When the regiment moved into the line south of the Aisne River, the front stabilized and the four regiments of the division dug in. General Smith organized the 36th Division’s lines into an outpost zone, a support zone, and a reserve zone. Within each regimental sector, one battalion held the outpost and support zone, and the other two battalions occupied the reserve zone. The battalion in the outpost and support zone pushed forward listening posts and patrols into the outpost zone, which extended five kilometers from the Aisne River and back. Despite the static nature of the front, combat continued. From October 14 through October 26, the 142d stayed in front of the Aisne River, trying to get a feel for the enemy, who posted snipers in Attigny and remained in force north of the river. Cloudy and cold weather prevailed and it rained more often than not. The rain and fog often reduced visibility and made it difficult to detect enemy movements. The regiment’s daily operations report frequently described the gloomy weather during the last two weeks of October using terms such as, “very dark and rainy,” “raining,” and “dark and cloudy, observation poor.” Indeed, during this period on the front the regiment reported only two periods of clear weather, October 18 and October...

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