Part 3

Awaiting the signal to attack. The sergeant is ready to blow the whistle for his squad to follow him out through a path in the barbed wire. In another minute they will advance close behind the bursting shells of a heavy barrage which, lifting, will leave them face to face with German machine guns.

France 1917

The "Territorial"--the name given French poilu between the ages of 34 and 40

Vailly--1917

Noyon, 1918

The Paris Bus--many kilometers from the Place de l'Opèra--used for transporting troops, horses, and fresh meat to the front

FATIGUE

You can see 'em in the movies, With the sunlight on their guns, You can read in all the papers Of the charge that licked the Huns, You can read of "khaki heroes" And of "gleaming bayonet," But there's one thing that the writers And the artist all forget:

That's me! On K.P. In my suit of denim blue I am thinking--not of you-- But the places where I'd like the top to be!

On the posters in the windows, In the monthly magazine, Are the boys in leather leggins Such as Pershing's never seen; Oh, they love to paint 'em pretty, All dressed up and fit to kiss,-- Ain't it funny there's a picture That they always seem to miss?

Bless me soul, Loading coal! In my little shimmy-shirt, Eyes and mouth full up with dirt-- (In the next war I'll be living at the Pole.)

Built for speed / and with light pack to match

R.B.--Belleau Wood / 1918 / A Marine

In an abri waiting for the "Gothas" (big German planes) to go home

The veteran of the Spanish-American war tells 'em how it ought to be done

R. Lufbery

Sketched at the Lafayette Escadrille field near Longpont as the aviator was getting into his "union suit" preparatory to flying in a Chemin-des-Dames engagement

Base port stevedores--Volunteers from the South who work eight hours a day for seven days a week--Bordeaux/18

A 26th Division Wagon Train moving toward Chasseurs wood--1918 Mule and Prairie Schooner in a country made desert by war

POILU

When we left the transport Back in St. Nazaire, Second thing you asked us,-- "Quand finit la guerre?" Didn't know your lingo You weren't hard to get, Peace was what you wanted-- And a cigarette.

Then up in the trenches It was just the same, "When's it going to finish?" Didn't seem quite game. Then we saw you strafing, Saw we had you wrong, Wondered how you stood it Four years long.

Drank your sour pinard, Shared what smokes we had, Got to know you better, Found you weren't so bad, Four years in the trenches! (One's enough, I'll say) How the hell'd you do it On five sous a day?

American being taught by Frenchman to drive truck so that the latter may return to his farm. France/17

Moving up-- over a corduroy road hastily laid down by a gérre (engineer) regiment in war-wasted land. The piece of wall on the right is all that remains of a French village of five hundred inhabitants

Senegalaise types / voluneers used for the attack and for labor on roads Vailly 1917

Moulin Laffaux

He handles a big naval gun mounted on railroad cars near Soissons