My turn will come soon

As August 1917 rolled on, Grant Willard went from the bucolic to the downright dangerous. Section Sixty-One moved to a base hospital just south of the city of Verdun known as the Surgical Center of Beaulieu. It was located at a cavalry barracks called Casernes de Bévaux. Today the old barracks buildings are part of a vocational high school and the only remnants of World War I lie in the national cemetery of Bévaux opposite.

Friday, August 10, 1917:

National Cemetery of Bévaux in 2008

8 o’clock found us on our way to our new base. We passed back over part of the same territory on which we came the other day. Reached our base about 5:30. At 6 o’clock three big German shells tore up the ground about ¼ of a mile off. We thought at first they were trying for us, but I think they were shelling one of the main roads near here. It caused a great deal of excitement anyway. The screams of the shells was terrific. They came about 1 minute apart and in approximately the same place. They certainly ripped up the sod. I foolishly watched two of them land from the fender of my car. The third one found me flat on the ground with the rest of the gang.

We have five posts to make with this hospital as a base. We are one mile from Verdun almost directly south. Our furthest post is up near Fort Douaumont about 1,000 yards from German lines. The rest are further south, but still near the lines and very exciting. This base is called Caserne Beaulieu or more familiarly Bévaux. It is a combination hospital and barracks and quite frequently shelled by the Boche. We are living in tents just out of the hospital walls – 14 in a tent. Our cars are parked about 100 yards from here under a big red cross flag. Aeröplanes are passing over continually.

This evening a German plane attacked an observation sausage right near here. The observer saw him coming and left the balloon in a parachute. Regardless of continual shelling from the ground the German made a beautiful swoop for the sausage, like a hawk swoops on prey, and burned it with an incendiary boom before the French could take it down. The German then went after a second sausage a short distance off. The observer left in a parachute, the French planes drove the German back over the lines before he did any more damage. It was extremely exciting to watch and we rooted like at a foot-ball game. The German was exceedingly clever and did his work beautifully. Later we saw an air battle in which a German plane was brought down inside the French lines.

Went to bed early after a hard day. Three of the boys went out with an American Field Service man tonight to learn the roads. We are to cover these 5 posts in conjunction with Section #1 of the American Field Service. We work on 24 hour shifts and they have already been here about 3 weeks. They are showing us the roads before the big offensive starts. Our work is most all done at night with no lights. My turn will come soon. The Field Service men say this is a particularly heavy district to cover.