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Francheville was a few miles south of the Marne. Upstream, the Germans were on the north bank at Chatea-Thierry. The front on which we operated ran northwest from there about six miles, passing Vaux, Torcy and Belleau Wood. Those were places where the American Second Division had done a good holding job in June. It has been relieved by the 26th, a New England National Guard outfit. The convoy on which I had crossed in September of 1917 had brought over most of the 26th. It was one of our best. In the Chateau-Thierry area neither side had organized trenches. The Germans had broken out of the old trench lines, and the new front had not been stabilized long enough for much digging. The infantry dug "foxholes" (in earlier wars they were called riflepits). They were simply pits in which a man by crouching or kneeling could get his head below ground level. They were often started from shellholes, which saved some digging. Here and there short trenches had been dug to connect one foxhole or shellhole with others.

At Francheville we were about 20 miles from the front, twice the conventional distance in trench warfare. It was planned that way. The Germans were expected to drive again westward toward Paris. We would be in their path, and no one could predict when we might have to move in a hurry. So all our equipment not in daily use was packed and kept loaded in our trucks. The gasoline tanks of all our planes were kept filled. The observers' guns, which ordinarily hung in the armorers' shop between flights, were kept loaded and mounted on the planes with extra drums of ammunition.

On July 15th the Germans began their last offensive of the war. They did not, as we had expected, strike westward toward Paris. Instead they crossed the Maene on a front of several miles from Chateau-Thierry eastward. They captured the heights that overlooked the Marne from the south, and pushed in that direction. By noon we were informed that allied command did not know how far the Germans had penetrated. The French and one American division (I think it was the 5th) had been driven back, but the divisional headquarters had lost contact with their forward infantry units. Littauer was ordered to send a plan to reconnoiter the area and try to locate the battle front. I got the assignment.