Soldiers of the Telephone

War Department · 1918

Charcoal sketch on white paper. Three American soldiers crouch in a trench. One soldier at left serves as the lookout while one soldier at right listens over the telephone. A third soldier at center holds a roll of telephone wire over his arm. There is a low fence on top of the hill in the background. A label affixed to the sketch reads: "'Soldiers of the Telephone.' Who stubbornly lay and keep open their wires under shell and machine-gun fire and who, often, well ahead of the tanks and the infantry are the 'eyes' as well as the 'ears' of the advancing columns - keeping Regimental H.Q. at all times in touch with its men."