"Louis, Jean-Charles, Guillaume, let's go, le pinard¹ is here!" the Baron leaned into the dugout and beckoned Louis and his new comrades to follow him.
The new men, Jean-Charles Barrault and Guillaume Pasteur, hesitated for a moment, looking to Louis for guidance.
"Come on, it's not every day we get wine, even if it is the cheap stuff. Sometimes the quartermaster has the better stuff as well. Le pinard is free, if he's got the good stuff, it's only a few sous², what else do you have to spend your pay on?" Louis headed out, if they didn't want to go, he didn't really care.
Both men looked at each other, then followed Louis.
The wine wasn't that good, but it was strong. Louis felt dizzy after a single cup. It was the "good stuff" but it wasn't that good, he regretted spending money for it.
As he and the new soldiers drank, the Baron joined them, he'd been waylaid by their lieutenant on his way there.
"Any news, Sergeant de Neuville?" Guillaume asked, after finishing his cup.
"Yes, we're leaving this section of the front, we won't be going back into the line tomorrow."
Louis' face brightened, "Surely that is good news."
"Well, I don't know. The Boche are making a big push on another sector of the front and the RFV³ is screaming for reinforcements and replacements. Apparently it's our turn in the barrel."
Louis' face went pale as Jean-Charles asked, "What is the RFV?"
"It is the area around the city of Verdun. Lots of fortifications, artillery emplacements, and trenches. The Germans have taken the high ground east of the area, we are counterattacking, of course. But it's been bloody," the Baron answered in a somber tone.
Louis stared off into the distance, suddenly the filth and the danger of this sector didn't seem so bad. He moaned quietly, "Verdun, we're doomed."
The train was late, so of course as the battalion waited at the station it began to rain. The temperature hovered just above freezing but as the day wore on, the rain gradually changed to sleet, then to snow.
"What is wrong, where are the trains?" Jean-Charles asked.
"There's a war on, don't you know?" Guillaume quipped.
The Baron turned to them from his position to their front, "Quiet lads, no chatter. The train will arrive when it arrives. You haven't been in the army long enough to know that if something can go wrong, it will. Better to stand here and freeze than to be in a hurry to get to Verdun."
Their lieutenant came back from the officers' meeting and had news for them, "We won't be off until the morning, the major says to return to our old quarters." That caused a significant amount of griping in the ranks. The lieutenant waited for it to subside.
"If you ladies are quite done complaining, stand to attention, by the left, column forward!"
The company disappeared into the swirling whiteness, their footprints quickly covered by the rapidly falling snow.
Before dawn the men were awakened, Louis, along with the other veterans had been up for an hour by then. The snow had eased off and the temperature had fallen precipitously.
"Bundle up, lads, it's bitter out there, just be thankful that there is no wind," the Baron had the platoon in ranks and ready to move within minutes. Some of the newer men were lagging and he let them know that they could count on standing the first guard when they reached the trenches if they didn't pick up the pace. Which they did in short order.
"Alright men, we're heading back down to the station, the train is already there. Don't expect lovely accommodations, we're traveling in box cars. We call them 'forty and eights' as they're designed to carry forty men or eight horses. I know, I know, perhaps a better name would be 'forty OR eights.'" The lieutenant smiled at his little jest, then he ordered the men to step off.
The air was bitter cold, when the sun came up the light sparkled on the new snow. The men were wreathed in the steam of their own breath as they marched, shoulders hunched, heads down. No one wanted to breathe in too much of the frigid air.
As they came down the slight hill to the station, they saw that the train was indeed there and the rest of the battalion was boarding as they arrived. The platoon joined the queue and in less than an hour they were aboard their car. While they weren't jammed in, there wasn't much room inside to actually be comfortable.
When the train lurched forward, a number of the newer men cried out as they nearly fell.
"Calm down, ladies, learn to brace yourselves as the train moves. You'll get used to it by the time we arrive at Verdun. Believe me, in a day or so you'll be missing the comforts of this box car!"
The train eventually lurched to a halt after a fourteen hour journey. Normally the trip would be much shorter, but having to wait for wounded returning from the front, and ammunition and supply trains moving to the front, caused a number of delays.
As the men detrained, many heard the rumble of artillery in the distance. The newer men thought it sounded far louder than their old section of the front, Jean-Charles remarked on that to the Baron.
"Well, you're right lad. Our old sector wasn't quite as active as this one. The Boche have brought forward hundreds of artillery pieces to try and force us off this ground. We, in answer, have brought forth our own guns to keep them at bay. I'm afraid lads, that this will be a stern test of both our nerves and our courage."
Louis shuddered at the thought of what they were getting into, everything he had heard about this sector was that it was a meat-grinder, a place where both sides fed men into the horror of battle in their thousands, and saw them die in horrible ways.
As he stepped onto the platform, an older lady approached the platoon, "Thank you for coming to save us my brave boys!"
As the men marched off, one of them said, "Not like we volunteered for this, is it?"
"Save your energy," the Baron snapped.
Louis felt a chill come over him.
Even the Baron sounded terrified of what fate might await them.
At Verdun.
¹ "Le Pinard" was WWI French soldier slang for cheap red wine.
² An old type of French coin, often the French used this term for any coin less than a franc. (A pox on the Euro, Just my opinion.)
³ The RFV was the Région Fortifiée de Verdun
