Cooking, made pies and donuts. Watched the French troops go by. It is interesting the way they hitch their horses, in tandem, one after the other, and the stoves on wheels. The poor men looked tired but cheerful. It was a long line of wagons, horses, and men on foot. Then the town crier came out; he is a funny old man and is a picture.
Two prisoners scrubbed the hut. A guard keeps right with them and carried a gun. We gave them a pie right out of the oven. They like to work for us because we always give them something. It’s fine to see the men come up to the hut door and get a pie or a donut or a drink of coffee They call it a sample.
One of the men went to the hospital at Grundy Carps. He came in two mornings for coffee and was very sick, but the doctor here didn’t think so. At Grundy Carps he is very sick and has a bad strain from over lifting. The men do very hard work and have no beds but a blanket in a barn and no cots and very poor eats, but with it all they are men.
More Information
The following section provides historical context and is not part of the original diary entry.
Likely location: Demange-aux-Eaux, Meuse, France
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By November 1917, the AEF training zone was fully established. American soldiers were learning trench warfare from French veterans while Margaret and the Salvation Army workers provided food, comfort, and morale support from their hut near the training area.
Research Links for Further Study
- Library of Congress. (n.d.). The American Expeditionary Forces. Library of Congress Digital Collections.
- Boissoneault, L. (2017, April 12). The women who fried donuts and dodged bombs on the front lines of WWI. Smithsonian Magazine.
- Cantwell, C. (n.d.). Doughboys & doughnut girls: The Salvation Army and WWI. National WWI Museum and Memorial.
Diary of a World War I Donut Girl 