American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-06-07
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

flTSl Lieutenant BOdS OF l1e lOOln
regiment, in a letter recently received
by his father in Jersey City, N. j., tells
in a breezy fashion of the first i'm
pressions of the men upon taking their
places in the front line. In a letter.
which is printed in the New York Ev-
ening World, he writes under date of
April 7:
Dear Pop: l have just finished a
second tour of the first line trenches.
This time with my own outfit. The reg
iment moved out from the training
area and after a tedious, jerky train
ride of about thirty six hours we de-
trained in Stygian darkness on a sid
ing at 3 a.. m. The boys were pretty
tired after the long ride, but their
minds were diverted by the maneuvers
of several German planes that were
trying to get over our column, but
were prevented by the shrapnel bar
RACES of the French anti-aircraft gun
ners.
We were billeted in reserve in a
town that had never seen American
soldiers before, and you can rest as
sured that the natives were glad to see
us, particularly the shop-keepers. Al
ter staying there about a week we
moved up to a camp that was hidden
in a thick wood on the reverse slope
of a hill a mile or two behind the
line. We stayed there four or five
days and put in most of our time wiz
ing. Fortunately we could take advant-
age of the cover to put up u wire
behind the front lines during the day.
We were always within close artil-
lery range, and when on the working
parties, within rifle range. The men
always annoyed me by the noisy way
they went about the work, and / said
when the first shells whistled over
now thatll stop their noisy chatter.
Did it? Not a bit. One would think
that the whistling and explosion OF
the shells were a form of entertain
. ment put up for their special benefit
So it was, but not in the way it worked
out. Every time one went over there
would be remarks like: "Wave that
, guy a miss" I'm thoroughly convinced
that if this outfit of ours gets close
enough to the enemy to get into one
+ of those hand to hand affairs, a Don
nybrook Fair will look like a Quaker
meeting in comparison. I'm not boast.
+ ing, but I've seen some of our fellows
> riled.
Finally the battalion moved into the
front line and took over a sector thai
was once very quiet. As soon as the
=, Americans moved up, however, the
: German activity increased, and Boal
' writes:
Every night there was In artiller!
duel that made sleep almost impossible
I say almost" because one eventual
4 ly learns to sleep even in this "diI
foundry" My captain confided to mi
that when he was a boy he was yer.
n much afraid of thunder, but just tn
same l had to shake him and tell hin
that the gas sentry was grinding tn
klaxon. That meant gas was coming
n over in the shells.
Our so-called quiet sector erupte'
the second night like Mt. Vesuvius
One of our companies came in for
) little .stfaffing but the boys. maze
the French officers who were assigne
to us by the splendid way they stoo
K it. l can't go into specific details, bu
[ believe the regiment received a CT
tation to the French army corps.
q we are cited again every member wi
= be privileged to wear the cord of tn
= French war cross. One or two off
= GERS and a number of men were pre-
:. sented with the decoration at tina
One corporal went through a barras
10 three times to carry out wounded me
and was prevented making a fourt
- trim bv some of the officers who fe
that he had lone more than his shar
There were several others who earne
u the decoration, too, by similar sets
. heroism and unselfishness. New foT
u can we'll afford to point to her boy
with pardonable pride.
y After we came out of the lines v
- were scheduled to hike for a week
so back to our training area n re
~ for a month. We stopped around in II
L rain and mud for a few days n can
TO rest in this little town. It's just u
~ same as any other near the line, Wi
its shell battered church and the Ii
IL tie cluster of peasants houses. Wh'
: [ look at the wanton
these old edifices. erected TO the non
and glory of God, l marvel at the p
= culiar construction of the honenzt
Il lern brain that prompts its possess
TO believe that he is the agent OF u
~ himself. l hope l come through u
- war without developing any undue n
4 tired toward our Teutonic friends IN I
United States, but l hope no n eV
ventures the opinion in my presen
~ that Germany was forced to do IN
that. or the other thing in self pre-
60 ervation.
A French captain told US the sto
of one of the villages we passed thi
and the expressions on the faces
our men was a study in psycholos
That night a number of them nea
wore out the forgeron's grindsto
putting a better edge on their payone