A Hot Reception Lt. Braddock who was the Regimental Supply Officer, told me to load up four mess ^carts with food and take them up ^immediately to the next town which our men had just only recently captured. It was about mid afternoon when my detail was ready with two horses in each cart and a heavy load on each. The town Montblainville, is located on a plateau east of the forest and surrounded by what might have been beautiful fields. We followed^the road which led up a rather steep incline to the town. I realized at once that this was not a very healthy place in broad day light. I inquired about the location of the units of our Regiment. They had pushed on toward Apremont. A German airplane flew over rather low and with bursts of machine gun signaled to his artillery. I ordered my drivers to pull up close along a stone wall which supported a terrace This was executed not a moment too soon. A shell landed in front of us. Now two! three! many! A barrage was upon[Page]us. My men scattered to dugouts. I held on to my horse by the bridle and leaned against the wall as if to hold it up. This reception lasted for what seemed hours. The air was filled with showering fragments of earth. stone, and shell and black with smoke and dust. Stones began to fall from the wall. This kept up for about fifteen minutes ^really when the barrage stopped as suddenly as it had started. I slowly ventured from the wall to check up on the damage and found one of our horses in a cart dead and several slightly wounded and a cart badly damaged. That we escaped with as little damage as this, was almost miraculous considering the amount of hardware Fritz had sent over. The stone wall seven feet high had been our salvation. The shells came at so low an angle that they either struck befoe reaching us or went over to ther other side of the street. As I walked down the road to gather up my men a whiz-bang crossed in front of me (a small projectile named because of its sound)

[Page]and exploded {in bank} of earth on the side. The Germans were still too close for comfort. We unloaded the carts and sent them back. The food had to be carried for which^purpose details were sent. There was no mistaking about this barrage. It was meant expressly for my mess carts. We had been seen coming up and the airplane gave the battery our location. This the first ^of three occasions when I or my detail were the target for the German artillery during theArgonne campaign. On the next forenoon I went up again to see Col. Martin. I walked this time and found him with his Regimental Hqs. in a dugout along a ravine halfway between Montblainville and {Appremont.}They were feasting on rabbits which the Germans had left behind on their retreat. By the way ^Incidentally the German Division whom we had fought back was composed of Landswehr from Wurtemberg. Col. Martin told me that our forces were not in possession of {Appremont} the ^next town farther down the {Aire }Valley. Thus our provisions from now had to be taken there. Coming back I crossed an open plateau and came to a large tree under which there was a small shrine. Here I was joined by a soldier who was going the same