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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First Page] [87], (1) Lines: 0 to ——— 13.0pt P ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TE [87], (1) four Champagne and the Battle of the Ourcq River When the 42nd Division withdrew from the Baccarat sector in June, it was one of the most experienced aef divisions. Only the 1st Division, which had launched a small offensive at Cantigny in late May, and the 2nd Division, which was becoming famous in the Belleau Wood, had more battle experience.1 Upon withdrawal from Baccarat the 42nd was scheduled to be refitted and go through additional training. Then it joined the Champagne defensive and the Aisne-Marne offensive, and by the beginning of August the bloodied Rainbow veterans had emerged as one of the aef’s best divisions.2 The soldiers who survived the combat of late July and early August considered themselves lucky. The division suffered more than eight thousand casualties from July 5 to August 6 out of an initial strength of twenty-seven thousand.3 Brownie revealed the thoughts of many when he wrote Marty, “The army is nothing nice in a place like this front has been. It makes a guy feel the uselessness of war when he sees men shot up and killed.” While the division’s service in Baccarat had provided a glimpse of war, the Champagne defensive and Aisne-Marne offensive introduced its full cruelty. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [88], (2) Lines: 22 ——— 6.19998pt ——— Normal * PgEnds: [88], (2) july 2, 1918 Dearest Marty, I wonder where we were “a year ago” to-day. Times have changed for us all right but as long as we remember it helps some. It seems a long-long time since I wrote you, and it is two weeks. I guess you’ll wonder if I’m lost. We’ve been on one of our “tours” of France and when our post office hasn’t been out of commission , I’ve been too tired to write. We’ve hiked and entrained and hiked again and are waiting orders to hike some more. Just now we’re too near the front to have much fun and too far back to have any excitement. And I don’t like the new section of France we’re in. It’s too flat and hot and uninteresting.4 It seems I’m fated not to write you Marty. Last Sun. eve. I started a letter but had to stop to arrange for a detail Mon. Well Mon. I left here at 6:30 a.m. in a truck and wasn’t back in time to write before taps. This afternoon I started this one and as soon as I started we had to get out and drill. . . . I don’t believe we would mind your mother if we could go camping out again. I mean mind having her go—of course we wouldn’t mind her. . . . Marty, I surely won’t forget about writing on “our day.” If I have to write hiking and have to use a newspaper margin. I’m going to write again before then tho—to make up for lost time. . . . Nearly the 4th of July and I do remember that also, Marty. But the good days will come again Marty—Here’s hoping. Do you know who loves you? july 10, 1918 I must write you a few lines to-night. . . . Just think—the 4th has been gone a week tomorrow—but how long when you get this letter. Time goes by fast in the army. It hardly seems possible that I enlisted over a year ago. There’s been nothing very exciting going on around here lately. A pretty stiff bombardment just now on our front lines by the Boches. I just looked down there. It’s ten-thirty P.M. and they’re more than sending up signals. I expect our friends here in the grove will answer soon.5 We still are in dog-tents & our French 120’s are with us.6 I wouldn’t mind seeing the battery...

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