The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-01-24
FROM THE
FIGHTING FRONT
. THRILLING AND PICTURESQUE
DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENES
AROUND CAMBRIA FRONT
RUSSELL KNAPPEN WRTESlETTER HOME
Incidents in the Life Of an American
Engineer Soldier on the British
Front

Russell Knappen has sent some let.
ters to his parents, Mr.. and Mrs. G.
+. K%nappen, and We are permitted to
publish the following extracts. The
description has to do with the great
British drive with the tanks:
For weeks before, we knew some.
thing was coming, for two weeks /
had been watching the date that was
to see the beginning of the smash.
For two weeks before we have
cheered up every time the clouds set
tied down; We have felt grouchy when
the weather cleared off, for when the
fog hung low. the tanks, the trains,
the cavalry. the working parties could
all be working at full speed. But
when the sun shope, it would have
been suicide to work when Fritz could
see what was doing. Some things we
learned by watching: some we were
told; many of them we imagined and
a few of them We just felt. The sus-
pense, as we watched the prepare
tons, was great, and as day after day
went by, and we began to feel that it
would work, we became more and
more excited, until the night when 1t
was to break. The papers have told
of how Fritz started a raid two hours
before the big battle-you can i'm
agine how the hearts of the men who
had been planning all this. jumped
with fear that Fritz was wise" and
had come over in a big smash that
would spoil all the preparations. A
more phlegmatic people than the
British, it would be hard to find; a
less ~phlegmatic would have been
rushed off its feet into a premature
s%pringing of their own attack. But
they just sat tight; the row Quieted
down and Fritz literally went to sleep.
And rs minutes later, the battle be-
gan.
Tuesday night | spent in one of the
hospitals where the wounded were
coming back. and got another view of
war. There was a continual stream
of auto ambulances bringing them in
all night. The TOmmies and ScOtties
were wonderful-always a smile. new
had very severe wounds, but they
were full of joy, for they had broken
the Hindenburg line. The only Tom
my who complained, was "sore" be-
cause he had been wounded before
he reached Fritz's front line. There
was one Scotty with a machine gun
through his right collar bone.
| talked with numerous German
prisoners. | could talk a little with
each man. Repeatedly he was asleep
in his trench or dugout; when he
awoke, the tank was astride the
trench and there was nothing to do
but surrender. They told various
stories about food supply in Germany.
but all of them admitted that these
were hard days for their people at
home. One Of the funniest things was
that three prisoners from different
regiments, and in different wards, told
me the Vaterland was sunk in mid
August, with $4,000 American troops
on board. They did not believe me
when | told them that one of my com
rades saw the Naterland in October
it could not be so, for the official press
bureau said she was sunk. There was
the usual reluctance to believe that
we were Americans. One 1~7-year-old
boy-the 120th Reserve Infantry Reg
iment is all II year olds, except the
n. G.. O's-askGd if we were not great
ly afraid Of submarines. | told him
we had hundreds of thousands of SOL
diers over here and 0 one lost IN
route yet. He was amazed; he
thought the SUBJ were sinking us by
the thousands. And Saturday and
Sunday, | saw war. | walked over the
Hindenburg line. What a winderful
trip | had. While | was there | saw
the Fritz's Smelling ........ and the
British blowing ........ off the map.
There would be a puff of smoke, a
brick red cloud of dust rising slowly
out of the ruins and then after some
seconds the report of the explosion.
\ had a chance to watch almost all
kinds of fighting forces going into &C.
ton or preparing for it; l saw some
units that had been in for four days
coming out for a rest and new mes
going in.