November 14, 1918 – Full diary entry:

“Regular drill and inspections. These are hard days. I wonder when we will be sent home.”

This seemed like an abrupt change in mood for Robert, considering we’re only three days out from the Armistice being signed. But by all accounts, the 140th’s accommodations in Fresnes-au-Mont were not ideal. Chaplain Edwards, in From Doniphan to Verdun:

The men faced the most trying conditions. It was cold with a damp chilly coldness unlike anything they had known. They lived in mud and ate in the rain and slept in old and worthless dugouts, or in pup tents. There was little variety in the food, and they suffered every physical discomfort. When one remembers how splendidly the regiment met these conditions, one has little patience with the complaints so readily made about trifles by the man who stayed at home. 

Fresnes was so badly shot to pieces that there was not a whole building in the place, and Rupt was not much better. The days were rainy, the nights cold and fuel was scarce. But drill and inspections went on. The men said “If this is resting, for Heaven’s sake let us go out and fight!”

Where was Robert today? See the timeline.