A nice girl in France is a rare article.

On September 14th Section Sixty-One got orders to move its base camp to Sommedieue, a village southeast of Verdun in the hills above the Meuse River valley.

Sunday, September 16, 1917:

The gang pulled out this A.M. for Sommedieue about 10:30. Three cars were left behind to carry office material. Jake, Fraze, Wag, Sparksie, and myself stayed behind. Things were very quiet after they left. The 42nd has gone leaving the town almost empty and then to have our gang pull out made the place feel like a cemetery. Got a call this A.M. to take a sick officer to Revigny[-sur-Ornain]. Jake came with me.

In Revigny we came onto 3 American engineers and talked with them a long time. One was from Montana, another from Iowa and the other from Chicago. They are from the 13th U.S. Engineers and are quartered just out of Revigny. Some of their men are already at Souilly making preparations for taking over the complete railway system from the coast to Verdun which undoubtedly means that the American Army will take over the Verdun sector for one. God bless them! I don’t believe there is a worse place on the entire front. We hear a great deal about the Somme and Aisne sectors and of the severe fighting in those districts, but I think the fact that the English are handling these sectors has a great deal to do with the publicity. There wasn’t a great deal said about the big French attack on Aug. 20th in American papers whereas it was one of the biggest attacks since the beginning of the war. The French don’t do a great deal of talking and the English are quite the opposite.

The boys told us of their ride over via England. Poor food, poor quarters, slow boat and bad treatment in general were the outstanding features of their recital. Since they have been in France they have had good food and good quarters, but very poor discipline. Their officers have very little control over them and the men show very poor spirit. They all wanted to quit. It’s too bad that things have to come this way for America, but, I guess, inevitable for a people who have lived so easily. It’s the military discipline that these boys objected to. They are all too good to follow anyone else. Maybe after the first three or four hundred thousand of them have been wiped out in a single combat they will come down to earth and listen to some of the good advice rendered by men and nations who know.

We also talked with an Englishman about 45 years old who is doing rear evacuation work from Revigny. We told him of Verdun and that we were replaced by the English section № I. His eyes opened and he said, “Were you up there?” Then he went on and told us that about half of Section I were there in Revigny in the hospital. Seven had been gassed, seven badly injured in a smash up on their way to relieve the gassed men and one had been seriously wounded in the back by éclat. Just think what we missed! It lowered this section in our estimation somewhat.

We also learned that Bévaux had been shelled by the Boche since we left and that the place almost demolished. I’m not surprised because the Boche have shelled practically every hospital in that district, but for some reason had left Bévaux untouched when it was the easiest to get. It’s a dastardly trick this shelling of hospitals when they had done so much for Boche wounded.

We took a swim in a near by ice cold stream this P.M. and ate supper at the Cafe down town. The young bar maid asked if any of us could play the piano. Jake is pretty good at it so we got in on a nice party. There were two very nice French girls present--pretty as pictures and apparently very nice girls. A nice girl in France is a rare article. The party broke up about 10 P.M. and we sent to bed.

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.