Cyrus Leroy Baldridge

“ Cleaning up old quarry used by Fritz as a barracks—Chemin-des-Dames
"Wagon Soldiers" (nickname for artillerymen)
Made in America—France Aug. 1918
"Marraines" (Godmothers) who kept their poilu godsons at the front in good cheer with letters and packages from home, and who took their Yank cousins to their hearts in the same kindly spirit
Sophie—Marie—Madeleine
in Paris and the provinces—
A type to match the ideal of every man who looks
"Papa Perrin"
Soissons
1917
No one knows where the poilu slang word "Pinard" came from, but everyone knows what it means. ”

“ It's half way between water and red wine, with the kick mostly in the taste. It is served as an army ration. The poilu's canteen is always full of it.
"We ain't no thin red 'eroes, Nor we aren't no blackguards too."
One of the Agent-de-ville = M.P. teams of Paris patrolling the boulevard. They have authority over both Yank and poilu. ”

“ Madelon of the village, who washed our clothes—and who still has some of those we had to leave when we pulled out of the sector in the middle of the night
Neat but not gaudy
As we come home—on the transport.
Troops coming home from Marseilles go by way of Africa and stop to coal at Oran. Here the doughboy rests the French Arab soldier with whom He fought side by side at Soissons.
Ready to go Home
Reading the Draft Covenant for the League of Nations—Paris. ”

“ The aumônier—poilu priest who marches with the troops.
Of the youngest class
A father of the class of '89
Moulin Laffaux
Un cannonier marin sur le front
He handles a big naval gun mounted on railroad cars near Soissons
French "corvée" laborers.
In the war of 1870 he drove a team instead of a camion.
Too old to serve in the active army and so assigned to the more unromatic, uninteresting but vital work of loading camions, tending horses, or building and repairing roads back of the lines. It has been said that the first battle of Verdun was won by the camion service. ”

“ The roofs of Vaux after a few minutes of Yank barrage lifted—
"The Germans have gone!"—St. Mihiel
The shell hole Central
On Guard
The noncombatant—
The family with whom I lived in Soissons
In 1870 Grandpère was taken as a prisoner to Coblenz
Madam Framary who sewed on my buttons and who transformed miserable French army rations into marvelous dishes
Erasme, the youngest son who starts his three years of compulsory training in the fall 1919
The eldest son. After his three years of training he was called to war. He has never come back.
Soissons—1918
Awaiting the signal to attack. ”

“ Dugouts built for German officers near Soissons used by them in 1915. Decked out with cement and mosaic floors, tile roofs and stained glass windows. Used by our troops in 1918.
The American Trained Nurse
Am. Hospital No. 5
What one man is fighting for
"Once upon a time—"
Before leaving France 750,000 doughboys contributed enough to support 3,444 French war orphans for one year, and the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper left nearly three million francs toward their education
Annamites—French colonial troops from Indo-China. ”

“ Intelligence the only qualification—any breed goes
Kénaro / S'aïd
Two dogs who worked together at Verdun
Sultane / Picard / Marraine / Filon
"mort pour la patrie"
The O.D. Circuit
"Pull the shades down Mary Ann"
A love song from The East—
Our own jazz band
"Coming out" after "The Washington Birthday Raid" Chemin des Dames$nbsp;1918
(Arabic script) An African Mohommedan, An Indo-Chinese Annamite and a prisoner who all crack rocks nine hours a day for the roads of France
French Colonials from Northern Africa used in shock troops
SALVAGE
I'll be stepping wide in these russet shoes! ”

“ Drank your sour pinard,
Shared what smokes we had,
Got to know you better,
Found you weren't so bad,
Four years in the trenches!
(One's enough, I'll say)
How the hell'd you do it
On five sous a day?
Chemin des Dames '17
American being taught by Frenchman to drive truck so that the latter may return to his farm. ”

“ Many appeared first in "The Stars and Stripes," "Leslie's Weekly", and "Scribner's Magazine", through the courtesy of whose editors I am now enabled to reprint them.
C. LeRoy Baldridge
Private, Am.E.F.
June 1919
I WAS THERE
Warming up the "corned willy" over the "corned heat" (solidified alcohol)
Rain overhead and mud underfoot
Baldridge Near Montfaucon / 18
Seicheprey.
America's old home sector—first trenches entirely under their own command.
THE LINE
Form a line! ”