The 25th Division in the Vosges Mountains 177 



ghastly array of casualties to its credit that Hartmanweilerskopf 

 had. 



At the north end of the De Galbert sector was Hilsenfirst, where 

 Company "H" of the 138th Infantry, at dusk on July 6, 1918, put 

 over our first raid. It was our opening clash with the Germans, and, 

 measured by the scales of war, it was a great success. After destroy- 

 ing a number of hostile dugouts and machine-gun nests, and killing 

 probably twenty-five of the enemy, our company returned with seven 

 prisoners. Our loss was four killed and fourteen wounded, and we 

 brought back all our men. Not an American, living or dead, fell 

 into the enemy's hands. We found out what troops were opposed to 

 us and left no information of ourselves in the enemy's hands. 



From Hilsenfirst our line, closely paralleling that of the Germans, 

 descended 1 500 feet into the valley of the South Fork of the Fecht, 

 and then rose abruptly 1000 feet to Braunkopf, another hill five kil- 

 ometers north of Hilsenfirst. The valley of the South Fork is so 

 deep that it would be called by us a canon. It is very beautiful, 

 and, unlike the greater part of our sector, it was well wooded. The 

 country was so rugged that our supplies were carried to the top of 

 the main ridge by an aerial tram and thence down the wooded moun- 

 tain slopes by pack-mules to the company kitchens. After the food 

 was cooked at the kitchens it was carried by hand to the troops in 

 the trenches in cans, called marmites, each holding about five gal- 

 lons. In the wintertime, when the snows were heavy, large dogs, 

 similar to those of the Esquimaux, hauled the supplies to the kitch- 

 ens on sleds and the pack-mules rested in warm stables at Kriith. 



Packs of these dogs were kept carefully all summer in the valley 

 of the Thur in order that they might be available for the winter 

 work. As soon as the first heavy snow came the dogs were trans- 

 ferred to the mountains and put to work transporting rations and 

 ammunition to the front on sleds. 



From Braunkopf the line continued north, along the eastern 

 slopes of Altmannkopf, to the Saddle (Sattel). Just east of this lay 

 the Reichacker hill, another one of the friction-points, almost as 

 famous, or "infamous," as was Hartmanweilerskopf. In this vicin- 

 ity the terrain had once been well timbered, but the German shell- 

 fire had destroyed nearly all the trees. A few stumps, stripped of 

 branches, alone remained standing. To get to this part of the front 

 without showing themselves the French had constructed more than a 



