I was there with the Yanks in France | Page 3

me! On K.P. In my suit of denim blue I am thinking--not of you-- But the places where I'd like the top to be!
On the posters in the windows, In the monthly magazine, Are the boys in leather leggins Such as Pershing's never seen; Oh, they love to paint 'em pretty, All dressed up and fit to kiss,-- Ain't it funny there's a picture That they always seem to miss?
Bless me soul, Loading coal! In my little shimmy-shirt, Eyes and mouth full up with dirt-- (In the next war I'll be living at the Pole.)
[Illustration: (two men peeling spuds)]
[Illustration: Built for speed...]
Built for speed / and with light pack to match
R.B.--Belleau Wood / 1918 / A Marine
[Illustration: "Steady, buddy!"] "Steady, buddy!" Baldridge Paris 1919
[Illustration: Never too far gone for a smoke]
[Illustration: But he wears the Legion of Honor and the "Croix de Guerre"]
[Illustration: In an abri...]
In an abri waiting for the "Gothas" (big German planes) to go home
[Illustration: The veteran of the Spanish-American war...]
The veteran of the Spanish-American war tells 'em how it ought to be done
[Illustration: R. Lufbery]
R. Lufbery
Sketched at the Lafayette Escadrille field near Longpont as the aviator was getting into his "union suit" preparatory to flying in a Chemin-des-Dames engagement
[Illustration: Base port Stevedores]
Base port stevedores--Volunteers from the South who work eight hours a day for seven days a week--Bordeaux/18
[Illustration: A 26th Division Wagon Train...]
A 26th Division Wagon Train moving toward Chasseurs wood--1918 Mule and Prairie Schooner in a country made desert by war
[Illustration: The end of his service]
[Illustration: Veterans of the Marne]
POILU
When we left the transport Back in St. Nazaire, Second thing you asked us,-- "Quand finit la guerre?" Didn't know your lingo You weren't hard to get, Peace was what you wanted-- And a cigarette.
Then up in the trenches It was just the same, "When's it going to finish?" Didn't seem quite game. Then we saw you strafing, Saw we had you wrong, Wondered how you stood it Four years long.
Drank your sour pinard, Shared what smokes we had, Got to know you better, Found you weren't so bad, Four years in the trenches! (One's enough, I'll say) How the hell'd you do it On five sous a day?
[Illustration: Chemin des Dames '17]
[Illustration: American being taught...]
American being taught by Frenchman to drive truck so that the latter may return to his farm. France/17
[Illustration: Moving up]
Moving up-- over a corduroy road hastily laid down by a g��rre (engineer) regiment in war-wasted land. The piece of wall on the right is all that remains of a French village of five hundred inhabitants
[Illustration: [Arabic script] Arabian Knight] [Illustration: [Arabic script] Between drives he works on the railroad] [Illustration: [Arabic script] On other days he rides a camel in Algeria] [Illustration: (head in fez)]
[Illustration: [Arabic script] Senegalais types]
Senegalaise types / voluneers used for the attack and for labor on roads Vailly 1917
[Illustration: The aum?nier--poilu priest who marches with the troops.] [Illustration: Of the youngest class.] [Illustration: A father of the class of '89]
Moulin Laffaux
[Illustration: Un cannonier marin sur le front]
He handles a big naval gun mounted on railroad cars near Soissons
[Illustration: French "corv��e" laborers.]
In the war of 1870 he drove a team instead of a camion.
Too old to serve in the active army and so assigned to the more unromatic, uninteresting but vital work of loading camions, tending horses, or building and repairing roads back of the lines. It has been said that the first battle of Verdun was won by the camion service. This is the kind of man who made that victory possible
[Illustration: A "walking case"]
A "walking case" -- France, August -18
[Illustration: Toul(?) sector days--Waiting for something to happen--]
[Illustration: Un grand bless��] [Illustration: A Medal for Valor] [Illustration: A wounded chasseur and "Fritz"...]
A wounded Chasseur and "Fritz" who has the next cot. They get the same treatment and neither seems to mind the proximity
Meaux
[Illustration: An American ambulance at a poste de secours]
An American ambulance at a poste de secours (first aid station) Ostel--1917
[Illustration: An old trench in the Argonne near Montfaucon]
[Illustration: The Edge]

THAT QUIET SECTOR
Four hours off--two hours on-- And not a thing to do but think, And watch the mud and twisted wire And never let your peepers blink.
Two hours on--four hours off-- The dug-out's slimy as the trench; It stinks of leather, men, and smoke,-- You wake up dopey from the stench.
Four hours off--two hours on-- Back on the same old trick again, The same old noth'n' to do at all From yesterday till God knows when. On post or not it's just the same, The waiting is what gets your goat And makes you want to chuck the game Or risk a trench-knife in your throat.
Two hours on--four hours off-- I s'pose our job is not so hard,-- I s'pose sometime we're going to quit--
* * * * *
The ghosts we leave--do they stand guard?
[Illustration: