FRENCH FORESTS FOR OUR ARMY 



967 



A HEAVILY SHELLED ROAD NEAR RIBERCOURT 



Here the automobile in which the writer toured the battlefront was stuck in a shell hole for 

 six hours. A terrific battle had been fought over this ground, thousands of tons of war 

 material was scattered in the fields and woods and within sight was an old quarry which 

 housed several thousand German troops. 



troops captured three rail heads 

 and the immediate problem was 

 to provide enough ties to con- 

 nect these rail heads with the 

 French railroads nearest to 

 them. Thousands of ties were 

 needed but by hard work with 

 every available man, the Forest 

 units assigned to the task of pro- 

 viding the ties, secured the de- 

 sired number in a remarkably 

 short time. 



The 7th Battalion, which was 

 placed at the disposal of the 

 French Government, manufac- 

 tured entirely free of cost to the 

 French Government, the follow- 

 ing quantities of timber: 4,468,- 

 000 board feet of lumber; 199,- 

 808 standard gauge ties; 191,- 

 604 narrow gauge ties; 127,475 

 poks and props ; 54,647 steres of 

 fuel wood. This is enough to 

 build 665 barracks; [95 miles of 

 railroad; 1,595 n 'il es of tele- 

 phone line on the basis that half 

 the round material was poles ; 

 and warm a detachment of 500 

 French Infantry 150 years. 



The casualties of the regiment 

 were, of course, not large, as 

 most of the men worked in sec- 

 tions far behind the range of 

 German guns. Among the cas- 

 ualties, however, are those of 



two officers, Captain Harry H. Mac- 

 Pherson and Captain Wilford A. Fair, 

 who were killed by German machine 

 gunners on October 5, 1918. These men 

 were looking for mill locations in the 

 Argonne forests. .In some manner the 

 Germans got behind the troops in the ad- 

 vanced section during the night and the 

 next morning as the two officers walked 

 through the forests, hidden German ma- 

 chine gunners fired upon them. Mac- 

 Pherson fell, badly wounded and Fair 

 gallantly ran forward to aid him and 

 was killed as he knelt over his dying 

 fellow-officer. Captain Fair was cited 

 for gallantry. 



First Lieutenant John H. Kelly was 

 killed in a motor smash-up. Master 

 Engineer George L. Nutter and Sergeant 

 Alcott were killed at St. Julien by a rail- 

 road train while doing a rush loading job. 



The influenza was serious at two or 

 three camps and several men succumbed. 

 At the Mimizan camp in the Lands Dis- 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE BAKERS 



When President Poncaire of France visited Chate 

 Germans he complimented the bakers of the town 

 civilian population. 



au Thierry after the American troops drove out the 

 upon their successful efforts to provide bread for the 



