[WORLD WAR I]. Walter L. Rau, Battery C, 101st Field Artillery, diary with battle content, 1918-1919.

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American Historical Ephemera & Photography

By Cowan's Auctions

Jun 25, 2021

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• Lot Description
  3 x 5 in. pocket diary, red leather, with remains of elastic band (no longer stretchy), gilt page edges, pages printed in grid. Diary has been transcribed and typed, 12 pages. He begins with the cities he passed through with Battery C, 101st F.A. from Boxford (presume home or close to it) to New York, to Liverpool (England) to Havre (France). He names about 40 towns there and across the border in Belgium. this is followed by several pages of names and addresses. There are 51 names, of which 18 are males and the other 33 females.
  
  The journal begins Feb. 1, 1918 with the battery leaving Camp de Coetquidan in France. They arrived at Soissones the following day and unloaded horses, guns, supplies. He notes that they were at the place where the Germans got closest to Paris. They rested before proceeding to their camp 5 miles from the line of battle. He notes that one can hear the artillery shelling around the clock. "Lights have to be out at 7:30 for fear of aeroplane raids." The next day they had gas mask drills. "We have to wear our trench helmets all the time." He spent the next week or so running water to the front for the cannoneers. On Feb. 18 they had a gas scare, but he could not find his mask in the dark. Fortunately it was not a real gas attack. But a month later, on March 17, 200 of the Infantry were gassed. 
  
  March 20, they "...left camp and entrained at Soissons where we entrained.... We rode for a day & night in freight cars & landed at Briene le Chateau where we started on our road hike which took us 14 days & it was a long tiresome grind for the horses & a lot died on the road...We landed at Neufchateau on Easter Sunday in the pouring rain. we had hard tack & two small pieces of canned willy (corned beef hash) for our Easter dinner." When he camp off guard duty at midnight on Good Friday he stopped in a small church for about 15 minutes.
  
  Apr. 7, 1918: "30 drivers detailed to go to front tonight to get our new position built...4 went up to old position to pull the guns our of the mud. We were wading in mud up to our hips walking in the pitch dark in no mans land running into barbed wire & falling in ditches try to keep up with the limbers. The guns were up to the hubs in the mud...Put guns into new position & were up to our waist in mud & water..." 
  
  Apr. 9: He does try to find some humor in the situation. "Hal & Pete seem t be bothered quite a lot by the cooties tonight. I am quite itchy myself. They have been scratching for about 15 min. Oh its great to be lousy.... We were in a billet when all of a sudden the Klaxon blew & somebody hollered in to put on our gas mask...pulled our guns right up in the position in the Loraine sector to help the 2nd Bat. there backing up the 104th Inf. here who are doing great work 117 of them have Croix de Guerre awarded to them..."
  
  They did have to blow off steam once in a while. May 24: "Miller, Cooney & two fellows in the 104th Inf. drinking white wine & Champaign was pretty well lit up. Couldn't find my way back to billets. 1st time I was lit up for quite a while." May 28: "About 15 Kil[ometrs]. from old position...Cush, Cooney & I were on advance detail with 18 other men to build barracks for those whose Reb. & we came down in motor trucks but the details was all shot to hell as everybody got drunk & Cush & I woke up at night & found ourselves sleeping in a grave yard on a grave. The guns are located behind the 2nd live trenches & the Germans are throwing a lot of gas over...The doughboys have vowed they will take no more prisoners as the Boche have used there [sic] men so bad."
  
  July 15: "We had position near what they calla the Paris farms,... Tonight the Germans opened fire on both woods. we had no dugouts & they were throwing all kinds of mustard gas over & practically every man in the other position including the Capt. & Lieut. about 35 men were gassed & sent to the hospital Brick, Payson & Picott slept in a small dugout all through it & were found the next morning they were pretty bad. We also had one man killed, Ralph Corey. The gun blew up & 3 men were wounded."
  
  July 15: "We had a position just below the town of Lucey....our guns were out in the open field. We are in open warfare now & we have no dugouts, if I ever saw anything that reminded me & also looked like a real Battle & Battlefield it was this afternoon. Lieut. Smart was running around swabbing out the guns & waving his hands in the air. Lt. Kanuth was wounded, Lt. Smart gassed both were sent to the hospital...We are now taking part in a big drive & it is the second Battle of the Marne being directed by Gen. Foch. We are working night & day no sleep at all. We have lost about 80 men & the men are loosing there nerves as we are continually ducking shells & are being gassed at the same time."
  
  Aug. 1: "we went through a night of hell tonight...They started shelling our Btry position & we had our gas masks on about all night. During the drive we certainly had the Bocohe on the run & we used to move up forward about every night 6 or 7 kilometers. We saw dead Germans, French & American soldiers laying all over the roads & woods & also dead horses some of them were terrible sights to be seen & it was enough to make you sit up & take notice. ...they say there was only about one full Reg. left out of the 101st, 102, 103 & 104...." 
  
  By September, they were engaged in the St. Mihiel drive. They captured prisoners, supplies, wagons, horses, etc. "also in one town getting kegs of beer, clothes, chocolate, bakery stuff, etc." They left Oct. 15 and moved to Verdun. Shortly after, in early November, a peace treaty was finally signed to take effect Nov. 11 at 11 o'clock. They still moved around the countryside for a while, but they bought a large Thanksgiving dinner, then later Christmas dinner. No more canned corned beef for holidays. By the end of March they were having numerous inspections in preparation for leaving France. They arrived in Boston on April 10, 1919.
  
  There are a few entries after this, things like the campaigns and dates that they participated in. Also he copied a letter from General Edwards (Aug. 2, 1918) and a letter to Yankee Division from General Leclerc, Sept. 13, 1918. He also added a few more names and addresses of potential correspondents.
  
  A short, but intense, tour of France 1918-1919. 
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