A French artillery crew moving a 75mm. field gun into position in Bougainville, France, behind the lines, west of Amiens. Bougainville is a commune in the Somme Département in Picardie. The Adrian helmet the soldiers wear was introduced in mid-1915.
Reverse:Bougainville / Sommemise en batterie d'une 75deploying a 75
"I've already told you that I'll remember 1 June 1916 for a long time to come. On that day there was a terrible bombardment one could not go out of the shelter shells were falling everywhere I ate my soup cold in the shelter a mate brought it to me, running all the way. I stepped back to make room for him at that very moment a shell fell in the corner of the shelter and shattered his jaw four splinters in the leg, three in the arm . . . If it were not for him I would have been the one to catch it and because he was a bit taller than I am and the splinter hit him in the jaw it would have hit me in the temple and you wouldn't have had your little guy any more . . . The guys of the Eleventh Battery who replaced us saw a shell explode in their very midst . . . Another one fell in the middle of them and killed four guys, one of whom was cut in two . . . and that happened pretty close to my head. I tell you this because I came out of it alive."
Extracts from letters by French artilleryman Paul Pireaud to his wife Marie on on June 9 and 21, 1916. Pireaud's unit, the 112th Heavy Artillery Regiment, moved into the Verdun sector in early April. Although French commander Pétain rotated infantry units after seven to ten days, it was much more difficult to do so with the artillery, which stayed significantly longer. The last great German attack in the Battle of Verdun was launched the next day, June 22.
Your Death Would Be Mine; Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna, page 113, copyright © 2006 by Martha Hanna, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2006
1916-06-21, 1916, June, Verdun, Battle of Verdun, Pireaud
