Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-12-27

elIeet, whose letters to this country
from overseas have proven equally in
teresting with those from Corporal Jo-
seph Coley of Sewaren, who is an old
school and playmate of Majors, has
written another dandy letter to his
mother. h removal of the censor
ship regulations finds the food gates
of these soldiers desire to tell of per-
n experiences wide open and re-
suits In a flow OF splendid tales from
France, of their experiences.
Majors letter to his rrOther follows:
> November, 1918 Chats my
birthday, isn't It?)
Headquarters Detachment, 9Th Engi-
neers, Srd Division, American Z. +.
Dear Mother
Despite persistent resolves to write
home at length, this is the first op-
portunity 1 have had to do SO since
several days before the signing Of the
armistice, and ii may be quite a While
before / get another opportunity
until. at least, i am we'll into Ger
many We consider ourselves highly
honored to be designated to be a part
OF the army of occupation. Some
think II foreshadows a quick return
to the States. 1t was so hard for us
to realize that the war was virtually
over. We had just come OFF a front
where the resistance was of a most
stubborn nature, and that Germany
would capitulate so suddenly was
hard to believe. / consider myself
very lucky to come through without
Injury, although / have had some
narrow and marvellous escapes from
death. Well, you may feel pretty
safe in stalking on seeing me before
many moon roll by, and IL is need
less to say that I will be very. very
happy to get back and away from 1t
all. Our entry into No-man's land
and the evacuated territory beyond
was rather theatrical and dramatic.
The division marched to q point OF
concentration this part of the Ger
man line and ~bivouaced for tho night.
That was two nights ago. We were
up at 4:30 and felt none the worse
for the night under the stars. The
commanding general came rolling
along in his car. and glancing at his
watch by the light of the car, said
that In ten minutes we would be off
for our march to the Rhine. He blew
a whistle and the advance guard of
one of the infantry outfits moved off.
Just then one of u captains, an
expert on mines and traps, hurried
up to me and asked me to get four
Intelligent men Immediately and
hurry ahead with him into No-man's
land. This was quickly done n off
VIC went just about daybreak. We
hiked seventeen miles, crossing the
1CoOiabc I'll CNSllSb VI ANO-AAdh . VA
o merged into villages which had
none OF the marks OF shell-fre, but
which had housed the enemy for four
years. We six were practically the
first TO get into the territory. with the
exception of q small detachment of
engineers and o few men from the
Signal Corps.
Do you notice the difference In
shades of the type2 1 I'M taking up
this letter again on the 26th of No
vember and am % well UP into
Lorraine. approaching the Moselle
river, and as I write this not a deuced
of a way from the historic city of
The first day We were to reach a town
called CONTAINS. I and my "booby
squad" (so-called because such O.
squad weeds out BOBBY traps and
mines) trudged Into Contains on sum
day morning. The place was full of
German signs n material. III town
was gaily decorated with the tricolo
of France and many banners bearing
the tribute "Honneur a nos Allies!"
"Vive la Entente!" and many similar
expressions. The inhabitants smiled
and beamed and gathered around us,
shaking hands cordially. From then
until the present writing we've prob
thousands of times shouted by old
n young.
The next day we moved or TO
Briey, the famous mining town to the
left of Metz. and were billeted in n
French brasserie (brewery) which
the Germans had converted into a
sauerkraut factory. There were about
four big watts of sauerkraut which the
Germans had abandoned when they
left the town a few days previous,
and our ingenious cooks prepared a
mess for supper (No. 1t wasn't pois-
pned!) Briey was as gaily festooned
as Contains and the populace rejoiced
at their deliverance after Tour years
nf German domination. After a well
come rest in Briey. we struck out for
the famous Lorraine country, con-
trolled by Germany for forty-seven