Arriving at St. Nazaire, France, April 14, 1918, the battalion was soon sent to Conde en Barrois, where it underwent a period of intensive training with special preparation for sector warfare.  The instructors were French.  Lessons were hard and severe, but the instructors afterwards had much cause for pride in their pupils.

From the training camp the battalion and regiment proceeded to the Argonne front, at first settling in the vicinity of La Chalade.  It was there the soldiers received their first taste of warfare, and it was there their first casualties occurred.

September 13th the outfit withdrew and retired to the rear for a special training prior to participation in the general attack from Verdun to the sea.  On the morning of September 28th the District of Columbia battalion was sent to the front to relieve a regiment of famous Moroccan shock troops.  It was at this time that the Champagne offensive took such a decided turn and the Washington men from that time on were taking a most active and important part in the general fighting.  They distinguished themselves at Ripont just north of St. Menehold.  They suffered greatly during their valiant support of an advanced position in that sector.  Despite its losses the battalion fought courageously ahead.  Prior to that it had occupied Hill 304 at Verdun.  It had the distinction of being the first American outfit to take over that sector.  The battalion fought doggedly and bravely at Ripont and succeeded in gaining much valuable territory, as well as enemy machine guns and supplies and ninety Hun prisoners.

Later the battalion held a front line position at Monthois, and it finally formed a salient in the line of the 9th French Army Corps.  It was subjected to a long period of gruelling fire from the Boches’ famous Austrian 88s and machine guns, and an incessant barrage from German weapons of high caliber.

The regiment moved south to the Vosges, where the battalion took up a position in sub-sector B, in front of St. Marie Aux Mines, where it was situated when word of the armistice came.

The record of the Negro warriors from the District of Columbia is very succinctly contained in a diary kept by Chaplain Lieutenant Arrington Helm.  It relates the activities of the unit from the time they sailed from Newport News, March 30, 1917, until the end of the war.  It is also a condensed account of the major operations of the 372nd regiment.  The diary follows: 

March 30—­Embarked from Newport News, Va., for overseas duty on the U.S.S.  Susquehanna.

April 17—­Disembarked at St. Nazaire and marched to rest camp.

April 21—­Left rest camp.  Base section No. 1 and entrained for Vaubecourt.

April 23—­Arrived at Vaubecourt at 7 p.m.  Left Vaubecourt at 8:30 p.m. and hiked in a heavy rainstorm to Conde en Barrois.

April 25—­Assigned to school under French officers.

May 26—­Left Conde en Barrois at 8 a.m. in French motor trucks for Les
Senades.