adox of
the fortunes of war.

We continued through the trenches to P.P. No. 5. This was our nearest
point in this sector to the enemy front line. It was difficult to get
through because of the mud and water in the trench. In some places,
because of exposure to the enemy guns, we had to crawl on our hands
and knees. At the post were eight men, two at the observation post and
the rest in a dugout nearby. The men at the P.P.'s are on guard
forty-eight hours, and off twenty-four hours. After ten days they are
relieved and go back for ten days' rest.

This special post was raided four times during that week. One report
said three hundred Germans came over but the men at the post said
about sixty. One attack was a surprise and they got four of our men.
The other times the Germans were routed with varying losses. The
P.P.'s are only observation posts and are not intended to be held in
case of raid, but usually our boys were eager to give Fritz all that
was coming to him, and they seldom failed no matter how largely
outnumbered.

There were no signs of fear among our splendid fellows, and while it
required courage to be a mile or more beyond the supporting line,
lying out in No Man's Land, yet the very danger and the adventure of
it made a mighty appeal to the full-blooded Yank, and there was never
a lack of volunteers.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Duck-boards are sections of boardwalk laid in the bottom of the
trenches to keep the soldiers up out of the mud. These sections are
about ten feet long and two wide, and made by nailing cross pieces to
two scantling.

CHAPTER II

ON THE MOVE

"Over there" excitement was the normal condition, and the real soldier
was never satisfied unless he was in the thick of the fight. Even
"holding the line" on the Alsatian border was tame, and the news of
Chateau-Thierry made the Ohio boys "green with envy." Their more
fortunate guard comrades of the 26th and 42nd Divisions had covered
themselves with glory. Where would the next American blow be struck?

"Anything doing up at the front?" was the first question shot at every
dispatch rider or truck driver who came "along the pike" from the
north. "The whole d---- country is full of Yanks!" "Ten divisions
packed in between Toul and Nancy." "Never saw so much ammunition in
my life." "Couldn't get through for the traffic." Such reports kept
the boys of the 37th on tiptoe of expectation. Would they get a chance
for the "big push"?

Imagin