Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1917-11-28

Ralph Il. Lamade, of WllliamSpOrt, Pa,
son of Dietrich Lamade, owner of Penn
sylvania Grit, has been serving with the
United States Motor Transport in France
and has seen some lively doings. His
WORK is carrying. munitions and SUPPLIES
TO- the trenches from the railroad lines
The following letter was written by Mr.
Lamade and published in Grit:
| had quite an interesting trip on Mon
gay ana am going to tell you about it
before l forget some of the details. We
got an order for sixteen cars to go To
SO we left camp at o'clock in
n sne morning 1a ing and going to our loading
p AHA we had our 9 first accident. It had
! ha hafd the afternoon and night
oeiofe and the roads were pretty sIinDerv
mne n we we tried to pass another convoy
o,r LIZ, III a,i me opposite direction, one of
p ta1 cars shpped and bumped into one of
eiaeI . cars Wnen we got the two cars
~ I, we round that our car mot mini
s Sur one II. IRON our section) had a broken
car mad two broken boxes and a bent
frame: we left the car on the road with
us 'drI tn and proceeded to the park
~ the park we loaded our cars with
d l5o =, gas rs, shells each car carrying 1903
smells These contain enough high eX-
plosive to break open the shell and SET
a and r tlae poison pc gas; We started home
afternoon, Tor the park was about 26
Gzilometers (about IS miles) back of camp
we ate our supper and started out
again for it was to be a night trip hut
while eating supper it had started to rain
again This, of course, made us feel
a htt!e discouraged. for it is hard enough
the 1.e, ram TOO We started out at 5 O'Clock
and we, should have reached our unloau-
ing park at about O'Clock
Rain and Trouble.
AFTER we MAD been on the road about
an hour, IL started to rain pretty hard
ana we also struck lot of traffic max
ing our travel very slow: so slow in fact
that for at least five miles we never got
80 or so feet and stop-move and stop
There would be mixup somewhere IN
the line and we would stop for 10 to Is
minutes before we could move again
All this time | was lying out on the mud
guard watching the road and telling the
driver when to stop in case there was
some one coming, or when there was a
bump in the road. oh. it was a fine trip
Once we stopped on hill and the driver
was pressing on his foot brake as hard
as he could, and he had the emergency
brake on as far as it would go, but he
slid down against the car in front of us
He thought the other car had backed
into him and couldn't quite believe It
when l told him that he had slid into
the other car.
After we had gone through mile after
mile of this, we reached a village which
is quarter of mile from the unload
ing park in going through this town
the road takes two very sharp right
angle turns. In going around the first
one of these turns the convoy stopped
very Suuuenly, out "Csy' (the other driV-
err couldn't stop. SO he bumped into the
car ahead of us, and this time he bumped
so hard he smashed our radiator There
we were, in the middle of a convoy, lots
of traffic, and the water was just pour
ing out of our radiator We finally decid-
ed to tow the car to the park and then
home again. So we got out tow rope
and started off I still lay on the mud
guard and kept "Cy'' warned as to
whether the rope was tight or not When
we came to the next sharp turn, we slid
over into the gutter, and the car that
was towing us couldn't pull us out. So
there was another problem to face, for
we We're tying up traffic on a very busy
corner.
Boche Shells Fall Near.
After trying to talk with some French
officers, we started our own engine and
pulled away from the corner up the
road about 100 feet. There we pulled to
the side of the road and stopped. The
sergeant said that when the first car
was empty he would send it back to US.
change the load into their car and have
them take it up to the park, and then
later tow us home, This was at 9:10
o'clock, 1t had taken us four hours to