History of the 151st field artillery, Rainbow Division, by Louis L. Collins, lieutenant governor of Minnesota. Edited by Wayne E. Stevens, PH. D. Pub. by the Minnesota War records commission.

IN THE LORRAINE LINE

41

Wenell.13 While they were shelling the 1st Battalion, the Germans dropped gas in the vicinity of the guns of the 2nd Battalion
with the result that seven men of Battery E were taken to the hospital. In reprisal the 151st fired five hundred gas shells on a German
battery position.
The first coup de main participated in by the Rainbow Division
took place on March 9. The raid on the enemy's lines was carried out
by French and American infantrymen, supported by their artillery
in the rear. The guns of the 2nd Battalion had for this particular occasion gone into position on a hillside southeast of Badonviller, a quarter of a mile from the village. There was little cover
and the positions, especially that of Battery F, were exposed to
aerial observation and enemy fire, though small dugouts in the
vicinity afforded some protection to the men not actually working
the guns. Large quantities of ammunition had been taken to the
gun positions; during a number of nights the drivers had been
working on roads intermittently shelled by the Germans. It was
their first experience of the sort.
The artillery brigade, in co-operation with French artillery, had
been ordered to fire on the German lines in what was known as the
Salient de Bohome,l4 between Badonviller and Village Negre. The
object was to destroy trenches and at the same time prevent the
Germans from escaping to the rear by placing a barrage between
their first and second lines. Under cover of this fire American and
French infantry were to advance in quest of prisoners and information concerning German movements.
The sun came out brightly on March 9 and at one-thirty, when
the artillery began firing, there was not a cloud in the sky. The
Germans evidently had some premonition of an attack, for about
noon they began shelling Badonviller, the picturesque French city
under a hill not two kilometers from the front line, which had been
13Wenell died the next day; McPeak died of pneumonia on April 21. Private Charles W. McLaughlin, slightly wounded on March 5, died of scarlet
fever on May 19. All of these men, as well as McDonough, Sergeant Raymond
F. Quinlan, and Privates John A. Bednar, Floyd R. Leseman, and Nicholas
McGaughlren, were awarded the Croix de Guerre.
14The term "salient" is applied to a portion of the line forming an angle.
In this case the salient projected into the allied lines.