Page:Ambulance 464 by Julien Bryan.djvu/218

 July 8th. Since our arrival here I have been aching to visit the captured Boche trenches near Auberive which the French took in their recent Champagne offensive. And so when I learned from "Chef" Coan, after I came in yesterday, that I wouldn't be on duty at Bois Carré or Pont Suippes again before I left the section, I arranged matters so that Mike O'Connor and I could start out early and bum around for three or four hours before it was time for the other car to come in. We left the cantonment at four this morning, missed a couple of shells rather nicely near the Mourmelon fork and arrived at Bois Carré just as the first German sausage was popping up over the horizon. I intended to head for Auberive which is about a mile from the post and although now in French hands is nevertheless only a few hundred yards from the present lines. But somehow we got into the wrong boyau and wandered several miles out of our way before we realized where we were. We had to give up the Auberive scheme altogether and go north towards Moronvilliers. But there was no direct route to the old German lines here and we were obliged to crawl