PERIOD OF OCCUPATION
I. COLLECTING SURRENDERED MATERIALS OF WAR
OTWITHSTANDING the signing of the armistice, the Division remained prepared for any eventualities, and continued to hold the outpost lines established at 11 A. M., November the N 11th. However, immediate steps were taken to place as many men as possible in comfortable billets, to bring up officers’ bedding rolls and men’s packs which had been left behind in the fighting, and to provide baths and new clothes and equipment; The 1st and 3d Battalions of the 357th Infantry went into billets in Mouzay, and the 2d Battalion occupied Baalon. The 1st Battalion of the 358th Infantry remained in barracks at Blanc Fontaine, and the P. C. of the regiment was established there. The 2d Battalion was billeted in Stenay, which it had taken after desperate fighting, and the 3d Battalion moved from Villefranche to Mouzay.
In order that the troops of the Division might be “echeloned in depth,” the 180th Brigade returned to the west bank of the river; the P. C. of the brigade and the 359th Infantry and two battalions of the 359th Infantry being located at Saulmaury, the 3d Battalion going to Montigny. Headquarters of the 360th Infantry and the 1st Battalion were at Mont-devant-Sassey. The 2d Battalion was at Villefranche, and the 3d Battalion at Wiseppe. The 315th Supply Train and the 343d Machine Gun Battalion remained at Sassey, while the 315th Engineers went into comfortable billets in Stenay. This arrangement continued without change for practically a week, with the exception that on November 12 the 5th Division was withdrawn from the line and half of its sector was taken over by the 179th Brigade. The relief was effected by moving the 1st Battalion of the 357th Infantry to Charmois Château, using two companies at a time on outpost duty. The front now extended from Stenay to Louppy, exclusive.
The terms of the armistice had provided that the Germans should turn over to the Allies specified amounts of war materials. In order to receive this surrendered property detachments of the 90th Division were ordered on November 16 to Longuyon and on November 17 to Virton (Belgium). The 1st Battalion of the 358th Infantry and the 358th Machine Gun Company marched to Longuyon under command of Lieutenant-Colonel James W. Everington, and upon arrival there inventoried and established guards over a large number of cannon, machine guns, bombing planes, and locomotives. The 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry, and the 360th Machine Gun Company were trucked to Virton under command of Major William H. H. Morris.
On November 17 the divisional front was extended along the Meuse River to the northwest as far as Mouzon, and detachments of the 359th Infantry were established at Inor, Moulin, Autreville, Martincourt, and Cervisy. On this date there was also established a police zone about ten kilometers wide in front of the outpost line extending as far east as Carignan, Chauvency, and Montmédy. Small detachments in trucks made the tour of this area daily in order to prevent disorder or depredation and to locate and establish guards over any abandoned enemy property. The task of these patrols was not very onerous, as the German armies had retired in good order, leaving very few articles of value behind them. However, some pieces of cannon had been abandoned on account of shortage of horses.
The principal activity was taking care of Russian, French, British, and even American prisoners of war released by the enemy, and repatriated French civilians returning from Belgium or parts of Germany to which they had been deported during the war. A large proportion of these civilians were absolutely destitute, and arrangements to feed them were made at Stenay, Mouzay, and Montmédy, and at other points. Never were the hardships which the French population had suffered during the war more apparent than in the spectacle of these civilians carrying everything they possessed in little sacks on their backs, returning perhaps to find their homes completely demolished by shell fire. An aged woman, alone and without any other food than that provided by the Americans, passed through Mouzay on her way to Fey-en-Haye. Owing to the ignorance in which the interned French civilians were kept, she had not learned that the little village had been utterly destroyed for more than three years. In order to prevent unauthorized circulation, examining posts were established at all important crossroads.
The citizens of the recaptured villages had many tales to tell of their hardships during the four years of German occupation. Meat had been unknown since the entry of America into the war cut off the supply previously received through the Belgian Relief Commission. Eggs were taken by the Germans for their own use. Letter-writing to relatives in France was forbidden. Their expressions of joy for their deliverance by the Americans knew no bounds, and at Mouzay, on the steps of the city hall, in the presence of all the assembled citizenry, General Allen was presented with a bouquet of flowers and an American flag.
On November 24 General Allen was assigned to command the 8th Corps, and Brigadier-General J. P. O’Neil assumed command of the Division. Colonel E. M. Leary, 358th Infantry, took command of the 179th Brigade, and Colonel Woodson Hocker was placed in command of the 358th Infantry. The 90th Division was in the 5th Corps from November 16 to 21. On the latter date the Division went into the 7th Corps, which on November 22 passed to the control of the 3d Army.
German artillery left at Longuyon, under the conditions of the armistice, and taken over by the 90th Division.