Sidney D. Light's WWI Diary, Postcards & Letters, 329th Battery Book Accounts

(for map of St. Mihiel, Flirey, Thiacourt click here)

Am really "somewhere in France"-- I have no idea where. We hiked from 4 till 8 and went into the actual war district. Went through Menil La Tour and then we struck a town that was all shot to pieces. Passed through Flirey, also in ruins. We reached here as it started to rain and pulled off the road into a field, unhooked the horses & tied them to carriages. Btry pitched shelter tents but I couldn’t find my roll. Tried to sleep under paulin {tarpaulin} with supplies but without blankets I nearly froze. Got up after an hour of misery and crawled into Sgt. Seafelt’s tent with him & Stg. Armstrong. Slept near Armstrong in a puddle of water and nearly froze to death. Up again at 4:30 a.m. and pulled carriages into woods nearby. Still raining hard, and all of us wet. It was awful. Weren’t allowed to build any fires so had to keep moving around to keep from freezing.

This is the St Mihiel section which the Germans held for 4 years ‘til the Yanks drove them out about Sept 12. There are some wonderful dugouts here. All cement, electric lights and running water, upholstered furniture and spring beds from houses they looted. Surface dugouts every few feet and deep bomb-proof dugouts here and here. The whole woods is under-mined and narrow gauge railroads run all around through it.

````````````````````

To read more about conditions at the front click here