New Britain herald., 1917-09-29
WILLIAM {. BUELL.
TELLS OF FRANCE
And Scenes Witnessed on She'll
Torn BattlefrOntS


the scenes witnessed at the battle
fronts in France has been received
by Mr.. and Mrs. Fred Buell. of 76
Winthrop street from their son Will
liam Buell., who is serving in the
capacity of ambulance driver "some-
where over there" Buell., who is
we'll known, enlisted last April in
the American Field Ambulance corps
in Boston. July 20 he sailed from
New York for France via Halifax and
England. 1t is needless to say that
he arrived safely although it ap
peared in the columns of the press
that the boat on which he sailed had
been sunk without warning and the
lives of those aboard lost.
Buell. received his education at the
local schools. graduating from both
the Grammar and High schools, be-
ing a law student at Syracuse uni
versity at the time Of enlistment. He
probably bears the distinction of be-
ing the only New Britain boy in Lon
don when american Day. was held
in honor of the arrival Of American
troops.
The letter follows:
Dear Father and Mother
Il am going to answer the letter I
got today very briefly and then lie
down again. I was rolling all night.
There was a big gas attack and we
were all very busy. I got one hours
sleep and that was on a stretcher in
an ambulance AS I was going up to
the post I ran into a wave of gas and
before I could get my mask on my
eyes were running. I was sneezing
and getting ready to shoot my
!, - -
though. There were number of
fellows gassed and with gas blesses
we have to go like the devil to get
them to the hospital. At the post
we give them little balloon of oxy-
gen and then rush like the dickens
over shell holes and everything to
the hospital. 1t Is very hard to see
with a mask on as the eyes steam
up. Also it is difficult to breathe.
We have to breathe through a chem
ical and layers of gauZe. 1t smells
fine, the chemical, almost as bad as
the gas.
There are two common kinds of
gas, mustard gas and pineapple gas,
called that because they smell like
mustard and pineapple. The mustard
is the easiest to detect. l. ran into
mustard gas the first time last night.
The pineapple gas just smells faint
ly sweet. 1t consequently gets more
men than the former. After going
through the mustard gas I ran into
the pineapple gas. had my mask on
by that time so it was all right. There
is a third kind that strangles and
also eats away the skin wherever
there is perspiration. We have not
encountered any of this kind on this
front The men take off all their
clothes and don't work SO as to keep
cool. It only effects them in the spots
where one perspires. The men even
hold their arms up so that the arm
pits will become cool.
when got back this a. m. went
to bed as I still felt little sick to
my stomach. I have been working
on my car since lunch and am going
to try and get some sleep as we may
all be called out tonight if there is
another attack.
"You can bet a fellow in this God
forsaken land likes to get mall We
don't have any time hanging heavy
on our hands, though. I had to read
your letter the other day on the way
to the post.
"Our section has just received an
other citation. That makes the third
! in less than a month. This citation
! was for so efficiently evacuating the
! blesses from the posts to the hospital
! during the recent attack. I just
don't manage about laundry. Gee, /
| haven't had my clothes off once since
being at the front. We are too busy.
We work about thirty-six hours out
of the twenty-four. Never mind we
are putting it over another section
that is here. They have given up and
gone on repos. We had prior right
to go on repos but when given the
chance the other night we decided tc
see this offensive through. I think il
| was because Of that, that we got oul
third citation.
II have raincoat now. One wa:
given to me. It came with some poor
poilu. I wear the sheepskin all the
time and could use about three every
night. It is fairly warm in the da,
time but very, very cold and damp
usually drizzle at night. I dom
need any lighter coat. I wear m.
sweater under uniform coat, m.
sheepskin and then wrap my blanke
around me.
} Fritz is trying now to crown SOM
barracks about half mile away. w
can hear the shells shrek over gu
/ heads. No danger to us as we ar
too near a hospital.
Hastily,
BILL"
"P. S. I shaved today for the frs
| time in two weeks. Rather 1 use
the lawn mower