Part 4

In the war of 1870 he drove a team instead of a camion.

Too old to serve in the active army and so assigned to the more unromatic, uninteresting but vital work of loading camions, tending horses, or building and repairing roads back of the lines. It has been said that the first battle of Verdun was won by the camion service. This is the kind of man who made that victory possible

A "walking case" -- France, August -18

A wounded Chasseur and "Fritz" who has the next cot. They get the same treatment and neither seems to mind the proximity

Meaux

An American ambulance at a poste de secours (first aid station) Ostel--1917

THAT QUIET SECTOR

Four hours off--two hours on-- And not a thing to do but think, And watch the mud and twisted wire And never let your peepers blink.

Two hours on--four hours off-- The dug-out's slimy as the trench; It stinks of leather, men, and smoke,-- You wake up dopey from the stench.

Four hours off--two hours on-- Back on the same old trick again, The same old noth'n' to do at all From yesterday till God knows when. On post or not it's just the same, The waiting is what gets your goat And makes you want to chuck the game Or risk a trench-knife in your throat.

Two hours on--four hours off-- I s'pose our job is not so hard,-- I s'pose sometime we're going to quit--

* * * * *

The ghosts we leave--do they stand guard?

The water wagon filled with red-hot coffee going to the ration dump via shell fire and not losing any time about it-- Outside Belleau wood--June '18

He's been on every front from Chateau-Thierry to the Rhine

Coblenz--1919

"Marraines" (Godmothers) who kept their poilu godsons at the front in good cheer with letters and packages from home, and who took their Yank cousins to their hearts in the same kindly spirit

Sophie--Marie--Madeleine

in Paris and the provinces-- A type to match the ideal of every man who looks

No one knows where the poilu slang word "Pinard" came from, but everyone knows what it means. It's half way between water and red wine, with the kick mostly in the taste. It is served as an army ration. The poilu's canteen is always full of it.

"We ain't no thin red 'eroes, Nor we aren't no blackguards too."

Paris 1919

"P.Gs" (prisonneurs de la guerre) who are keeping in physical trim by lumber work in a forest where once the kings of France took their morning walks

Croix St. Ouen 1918

A Yank going on leave having a midnight cup of "vin rouge" in a compartment of a Permissionnares' Train--with a soixante-quinze gunner, a sailor from a submarine, a chasseur, an aviation sergeant, and several infantrymen. For the next ten days of "permission" these men can forget war.

En route--Nice/1918

Coming Out! dirty, tired and grinning! Chateau Thierry June--1918

MAIL! Brought up to the front by the ration detail