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Read Ebook: I was there with the Yanks on the western front 1917-1919 by Baldridge Cyrus Leroy Baukhage Hilmar R Hilmar Robert
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 187 lines and 8067 words, and 4 pages"I was there" with the Yanks in France Sketches by C. LeRoy Baldridge Private, A.E.F. "I WAS THERE" WITH THE YANKS ON THE WESTERN FRONT 1917-1919 BY C. LEROY BALDRIDGE PVT. A.E.F. TOGETHER WITH VERSES BY HILMAR R. BAUKHAGE PVT. A.E.F. G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1919 TO OUR MOTHERS Ours the Great Adventure, Yours the pain to bear, Ours the golden service stripes, Yours the marks of care. If all the Great Adventure The old Earth ever knew, Was ours and in this little book 'Twould still belong to you! PREFACE These Sketches were made during a year's service as a camion driver with the French amry in the Chemin-des-Dames sector and a year's service with the A.E.F. as an infantry private on special duty with "The Stars and Stripes," the official A.E.F. newspaper. Most of them were drawn at odd minutes during the French push of 1917 near Fort Malmaison, at loading parks and along the roadside while on truck convoy, and while on special permission to draw and paint with the French army given me by the Grand Quartier G?n?ral during the time I was stationed at Soissons. The rest were drawn on American fronts from the Argonne to Belgium as my duties took me from one offensive to another. It has been a keen regret to me that my artistic skill has been so unequal to these opportunites. The sketches do not sufficiently show war for the stupid horror I know it to be. I hope, however, they may serve as a record of doughboy types, of the people he lived with in France, with whom he suffered and by whose side he fought. Many appeared first in "The Stars and Stripes," "Leslie's Weekly", and "Scribner's Magazine", through the courtesy of whose editors I am now enabled to reprint them. C. LeRoy Baldridge Private, Am.E.F. June 1919 I WAS THERE Seicheprey, America's old home sector--first trenches entirely under their own command. THE LINE Form a line! Get in line! From the time that I enlisted And since Jerry armististed I've been standing, kidding, cussing, I've been waiting, fuming, fussing, In a line. I have stood in line in mud and slime and sleet, With the dirty water oozing from my feet, I have soaked and slid and slipped, While my tacky slicker dripped, And I wondered what they'd hand me out to eat. Get in line! For supplies and for inspections, With the dust in four directions, For a chance to scrub the dirt off, In the winter with my shirt off, In a line. I have sweated in an August training camp, That would make a prohibition town look damp, Underneath my dinky cap While the sun burned off my map And I waited for some gold-fish . Get in line! For rice, pay-day, pills, and ration, For corned-willy, army fashion, In Hoboken, in the trenches, In a station with the Frenchies, In a line. I've been standing, freezing, sweating, Pushing, shoving, wheezing, fretting, And I won't be soon forgetting Though I don't say I'm regretting That I stood there, with my buddies, In a line. The Lids We Wear-- The Ration Detail--a job which no one relishes. Each day the other fellow's artillery tries to lay down a fire which will keep these boys from getting back. They travel to where their supply company has dumped the food from mule carts--the point nearest front where creaking wheels may go. The man in the center is carrying a string of French loaves, the round black variety common before we got our own bakeries started. The Headquarters Company of the Reserve Mallet taking its bath at Chavigny Farm. The tub is a tin-lined cigarette box used by the Y.M.C.A. Water is heated in the old farm fire-place. "PREPARE FOR ACTION" I ran into Johnny Redlegs A-sitting on his bus, And I asked him why the devil He dropped half his shells on us. He just smiles and puffs his corn-cob, As peaceful as a Persian, And, "Buddy," says he, "you can't blame me, You gotta blame dispersion." I says to Johnny Redlegs, "If I didn't have nine lives Your barrage would have got me With those lousy seventy-fives." He grins and puffs his corn-cob, And then he winks, reflective, And, "Buddy," says he, "you can't blame me If you pass your damn objective." I says to Johnny Redlegs , "The trouble with your popgun is She pops too gol-darned slow." Then Redlegs drops his corn-cob And spits on both his han's, And, "Buddy," says he, "you can kid with me And the whole damned Field Artilleree, But there'll be a dud where you used to be If you kid my swasont-cans!" "Johnny Redlegs"--guardian of the "Soixante-quinze." ...and the doughboy who tries to keep just the right distance from the covering barrage fire. Among the first sent across/They served with the French in '17 American and French field artillery gun crews camped together in a wood near Charsoney. The canvas overhead keeps the fire from being observed by aeroplanes at night. The linesman at the front-- Same old job with just a couple percent more risk than usual Using a shell-shocked tree for a telegraph pole. St. Mihiel 1918 Dumb Beasts bucks: "Maud" and "Mud" Former refugee--now mascot and the only man in the outfit who likes monkey meat RELIEF -z-z-z-z-z-z-z-Z-Z-Z-Z-E-E-E-EEEEEE- - b Boom! There's another! Jesse! that was a close one. Wonder if......good Christ! Where's Charlie? Got him clean. God curse those Jerries! I'll get even,--p'raps-- out there. The Relief-- Coming up to the front lines through the communication trenches, which extend a kilometer or so. On these occasions little love is lost on "beautiful moonlight nights" The roofs of Vaux after a few minutes of Yank barrage lifted-- In 1870 Grandp?re was taken as a prisoner to Coblenz Madam Framary who sewed on my buttons and who transformed miserable French army rations into marvelous dishes Erasme, the youngest son who starts his three years of compulsory training in the fall 1919 Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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