The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-02-24
Appleton Miles Writes from
France of Sights and
Experiences
IN AUTO SERVICE
AT REAL FRONT
Four Cars Blown to Smithereens at
Time When Drivers Happened to Be
Far Enough Away to Escape Death
Will Stay Another Three Months.


Appleton Miles, who is in the Ameri-
can ambulance service in France, has
written 20 his mother, Mrs. G. A. Miles,
"a letter containing some interesting
facts about his experiences near the war
front. The letter, just received, SAYS
in parts
:" Somewhere in France, Jan. 81.
At present, we--four of us-are de-
tached from our section, and are doing
special evacuation for the corps
'arnee. II s splendid here as we.have
room at a hotel and good food, every
thing paid for except our breakfast. We
don I have more than one call a day
and so you see / have an excellent
chance to write. We will not be long
/ here, and move tomorrow for another
long trip i think. We have already
crossed practically the whole of France.
/ II is beautiful even in this bad wealth
or. Have had chance to see all the
important cathedrals except Rheims. |
thing / III stay another three months,
for il would be a shame 10 miss some
good weather now that | am over here.
IT has been terrible, always mud, mud,
mud, and cold and wet. Now we have
a very little snow. | personally am feel
ing fine.
Christmas eve was spent in an abri
at the front. II happened to be the
first night that / was out there and the
noise Of the guns, hammering away all
the time, did not afford much time for
sleep. Along about midnight the Ger
man shells began to come in. There was
n battery about 800 yards behind us that
they were trying for. First you hear
their shrill whistles and Immediately
the explosion. The difference between
arrivals and departures is very marked,
the first being whining whistle, and
the other chug chug sound, almost like
that of a railroad train. | had to go
out that night. and III tell you / was
mighty glad to get back TO my shelter
80 feet under ground, with steel rails
and concrete above me. II happened TO
be a German abri. Very well made they
are. You see we are in entirely re-
gained territory. and at one of oul
postcs there is kasino built by the
Boches with German lettering.
The country around here is indescrib
e able. IL is completely demolished, razeC
b and barren. One place we passed
: through was once thriving village
and we had to be told where il was
. There was not one single house OF
+ part of house left standing, nothing
e but shell holes, shell holes, everywhere
' and so many that they adioin, for miles
: and miles. just distinguishable ar,
: the first line of trenches, of botl
!. French and German, not over 20 or q
:. feet apart. These were the lines las
. July, and still az the bottom of tn
she'll holes and trenches are all kinds o
:. German and French paraphernalia-
= helmets, parts of clothing, rifles, hant
: grenades and, most of all, the unburie,
: German dead, with now and then
: grinning skull with the dried flesh still
on it. There are abris, the entrance o
which has been covered by the celia
: from she'll and no one knows who wer
?. inside at the time, who now are burieC
I, and without long procession and sof
u music. Now and then along the rOa
& YOU come to what was a forest with tn
y stark trunks, stripped of their branche
ii and here and there split and powde
burnt. fellow driver almost ran hi
Y, ear in a shell hole the other night.
O. was so dark he could not see his han
70 before his face and ran over a dea
horse and hit q wagon, but got throug
= all right.
! could 20 on and describe the man
l unusual sights, but have to always b
| careful of censorship and will save mos
/ of it to tell when | see you. We al
soon TO leave the Somme and 90 to al
l other point. 1t is fine here, for we hay
good. little hotel, and ! am sleepin
in a real bed for the first time in nea
lv four months. Yesterday, our squa
| were all sitting around our cantonmel
j when a very big Bochc she'll landed
I the front yard and blew four OF our ca
4 to smithereens, so they left but bunC
| Of junk. 1t just happened that mol
l of us were in the yard or we all Won
| have been killed. One boy got a sea
i wound, not serious. We have been at Il
l real front and been doing the work
l three French sections. We handled
Il pretty well and received the milita
| citation, which means a good deal, al
We can have the croix de guerre paint'
on our ears.
Hope you people are all thriving ov
there and keeping warm, for ] haven
forgotten our cold winter.
APPLETON T. MILES.