Patients were lying outside the Hospital walls in the damp night air.

In mid-August 1918, SSU 647 was sent to rest up along the banks of the Moselle River. In a few weeks one of the major American offensives would begin around St. Mihiel. 

In this paradoxical journal entry, Grant gives us a fun account of his permission on the Mediterranean coast and his jarring return to the Western Front.

Tuesday, August 21, 1918:

Have grown very lax with my diary. Must take a brace and get back to writing every day.

Stuart Fraser

On July 24 Stuart Fraser and I left camp for a 7 day permission in Cette [Sète], department of Hérault, on the Mediterranean Sea near Spain. It was on a Wednesday. We went to Toul by camionette Wed. A.M., caught a 12:42 train for Nancy and spent our first night there in the Hotel Angleterre. We experienced a small air raid that night, but no damage was done in the city itself. Frase and I watched it from our window. Thursday A.M., July 25, at 7:15 we embarked for Dijon arriving there about 2 P.M. We caught the 2:10 P.M. from Dijon for Tarascon. We reached Tarascon Friday morning at 3:30 and caught a 4:00 local for Cette. We reached Cette about 8:00 A.M. Friday, July 26.

The natives were startled to see 2 Americans arrive in their midst and went out of their way to be nice to us. We put up at the Hotel Terminus near the station. A very interesting place was the Terminus. An old codger ran the place and gave us a room without so much as asking our names. We were known as Américains de trente-six (36 being the number of our room). A queer room on the 4th étage was our home while in Cette. The 4th floor was the dance hall, a large tiled room overlooking a park. Rooms led off of this floor and ours was right on the corner. The only window overlooking the court was a small barred window too high to look out of. The other window overlooked what might have been an air shaft or a dungeon. The floor was red tile spotted with brilliantly colored Spanish rugs. Our only light at night was a candle and we had no running water. We paid 8 francs a day for this room. Our meals at the Terminus were the redeeming feature. The meats were particularly good and the meat sauces couldn’t be beaten. We paid 10 francs a day a piece for meals exclusive of breakfasts which we never ate.

Our program was eating, swimming, drinking and sleeping. Wow, how we did sleep! Always early to bed and never up before 10 in the morning. We bathed twice a day on la plage. The water felt a bit cold, but very refreshing. The beach was the most popular place in town. Cafes and a very find theater line the beach and make it very attractive after the heat of day. Don’t go to Cette in August. It’s too damn hot. Don’t go to Cette in the winter! It’s too damn dusty and dirty. Go sometime between June and August or September and January. We picked up an acquaintance with two English boys who came into Cette on a “tramp” for a few days. We went down to look over their boat and they showed us around. One was chief gunner and the other was the wireless officer. We took a fancy to them and had them up for several meals. Afterward we went swimming. A great pair! They knew more late American songs than we did and sang them very well. All this time we were getting better acquainted with the old man in the Cafe next door. Guess he took pity on us because we spoke such miserable French. Anyway he used to treat us often out of his private wine cellar and we got sugar while the rest of them got saccharine. The old man’s nephew came after the two English lads had left and Frase and I took him on for a whirl. He was nothing, but a kid of 20 years who had been wounded and wore the Croix de Guerre. Just out of the hospital, we played billiards with him, took him swimming with us, fed him a couple of good meals, went to grand and comic opera with him.

After that the Cafe was ours. The old man couldn’t do enough for us. He was in Africa with the French army for 27 years and had many interesting stories to tell. After Charlie, the Frenchman, left Cette, we played around with a couple of French dames -- Elaine and Emma. They liked to go swimming with us and usually met us at the beach every morning. We had much fun with them. Then came Johnnie and Eric and the rest of our permission in Cette was spent with them. In all it was a beautiful permission.

We regretfully left on Friday, Aug. 2, for camp. We had a beautiful course mapped out for our return journey, but they fell through miserably. At Avignon we were unable to take the Marseilles train as we planned because it was for officers only so we stayed there until 1:52 Sat. A.M. catching a local for Dijon. The train was crowded and what sleep we got was in the aisle of the car prone on the floor. We reached Dijon at noon on Saturday and took a 3:30 local for Langes reaching there about 9:30 that evening. The first train out for Toul left at 4:30 Sunday A.M. We had only eaten one meal during the day and were almost starved. The best we could do by way of food was cheese, kippered canned herring and beer at the French canteen. We slept in casualty barracks on boards with no blankets until we were awakened in time to catch our train. We reached Toul about 10:30. It looked like home to us. In Toul we washed, shaved our mustaches to please the Lieutenant and ate a gorgeous dinner. We caught a 6:00 train Sunday, Aug. 4, for camp and arrived there about 7 P.M. in time for something to eat. We hated coming back, but the place surely did look good to us.

We were put right to work and have worked ever since.

On the night of Aug. 7 the 89th Division came in to replace the 82nd. We were scheduled to leave on Aug. 9 with the 82nd after the two Colonels had had something of a scrap over us. On the evening of the 7th Fritz gassed the Jury Woods and the Flirey sector very heavily. Early on the morning of the 8th every car was called into action and up to 4 P.M. that day we evacuated from the front 782 gas patients from the 89th. Think of that. Their first night at the front to have almost a regiment wiped out in casualties. To whom belongs the blame no one seems to know. It will be remembered that the 89th was General Woods’ Division in the States and came over with a wonderful record. On the evening of the 8th their ambulance train came so our Lieutenant called us all off duty for a good night’s rest before pulling out the next day. About 10 P.M. that night the 89th begged us to help evacuate to Toul. They had more patients than they could handle and they were lying outside the Hospital walls in the damp night air. The Lieut. was pretty sore about it all so he called for volunteers. The section to a man volunteered and we worked all night in inky blackness. We carried over a 1000 patients. By 11 A.M. Aug. 9, we had camp packed up ready to move. We left about 11:30 for Nancy. It was a queer convoy. Only one car dropped out, but everybody was asleep. Every time we stopped we took a nap. At Nancy we were barracked across from the Auto Park and stayed there until Aug. 16. The Lieut. gave us every possible bit of freedom. We had passes into Nancy at any time up to 10:30 at night. We did very little work and much play. Frase and I slept up on pay because the payroll was signed in our absence, but there was enough money in the section to keep us going. The air raids in Nancy were a bit bothersome, but we soon got used to them.

On Aug. 16 we moved up here to Millery, a small town about midway between Nancy and Pont-à-Mousson--a very beautiful and interesting place. It is almost on the lines but seldom touched by shell fire. It’s a very quiet sector and has been since the beginning of things. There are many American Divisions in here. Those that I know are--1st, 2nd, 26th, 30th, 42nd, 77th, 82nd and the 89th is in the adjoining sector. What are they all doing up here? The 1st and 2nd, of course, are very much shot up having just come down from their remarkable record at Soissons and Château-Thierry. The 26th also deserved a rest having been in the lines since March sometime. The 42nd has been in as long. Really, these 4 divisions have suffered severely. Captain Whitney at Woods #3 told me that officially the Americans have had 57,000 casualties since they have been in action. The majority of these, of course, come from the 1st and 2nd Division (the 5th and 6th) have received most of the credit particularly in the Cantigny success. But after talking with a few of the 9th and 23rd also of the 2nd Division it is readily seen that they have been through just as much. They are inclined to resent the publicity and praise awarded the Marines. I suppose this is only natural. On the night of Aug. 17 Hap and I stood beside the road watching the Marines coming out (the 82nd relieved them hp here in Pont-à-Mousson. They were only in here about 2 weeks). It was so dark we couldn’t see faces. I’ll bet 50 Minneapolis and U of M men we know well passed us within that half-hour. Big fellows they were and all in good spirits. I wish we could have seen them in day light.