Catoctin clarion., 1918-07-04

description of some conditions on our
transport. One of the main reasons it
impresses me so strongly is that it re-
minds me of the evening lost my sup
per before reaching deck, and as there
was no way of getting anything more be-
fore morning there was nothing to do but
smile. The only consolation we give any
body here if they complain is the reply,
"You're in the army now
TRANSPORT CHOW.
The boy sat on the greasy deck,
A-eatin' of his chow,
They d run him off the forward hatch,
| And chased him out the bow.
The wind had blown his bread away,
He'd slipped and spilled his beans,
And now his neighbor's coffee
Was asoakin' up his jeans.
He heard voice ring through the air,
| In accents, loud and bold,
You hike across the after hatch,
And scramble down the hold.
There's water on the other side,
To grease your dish in,
| CA thousand men had washed in it
And still twas pretty thin.)
The boy stood on the dirty deck
And swore if he had sense,
| He'd never cross the pond again
At Uncle Sans expense.
We finally disembarked at seaport in
France and proceeded to a rest camp for
| f.,n nf ba OF 10
it rained. Then we started to learn what
real soldering was Some of the COM
panies drilled, some dug bitches, some
helped unload boats, some did construction
work. Our company did military police
duty. We were not allowed to eat in the
barricks and had no mess hall, so we had
to stand in couple inches of mud around
the kitchen, hold our mess kits in our
hands, and eat, unless we were lucky
enough to find small piece of wood to
set our kits on. After about 10 days of
this We left for few days trainride for
- our future quarters We left the
train about 9. 30 p. m. 1t was dark, and
we saw flashesin the sky and heard guns
firing, and the first thing we knew we
were in the midst of an air raj d. The
sky was dotted with airplanes. They
have two little lights underneath and
when they put them out you cannot see
the plane even on the brightest moon
light night. Then they have a large
headlight which is used for signaling and
landing.
| AS we continued our march we wou Id
hear now and then an explosion louder
than the rest, which we soon found out
to be bombs. Of course these have bee
numerous since that time, but this being
my first experience it is impressed on
my mind more than the others. always
did enjoy fireworks very much so | was
walking along gazing in the air and en-
joying the sights very much and all of a
sudden we saw streak of fire in the sky
as Boche machine caught fire and came
to earth; then shortly bomb went off
close by; then we came upon plane, the
wings hanging in tree, limbs broke off
the side of the tree and a general smash
ed up plane. The ambulance truck was
was just leaving, when the first thing we
knew we were lit up by a an aeroplane s
headlight and then bomb fell SO close
that several men in the front ranks were
knocked down by the conclusion. Then
we had large hole in the road to walk
around. Here We realized how danger
Gus these things were. For example,
if one fell in the square at home the cor
ner building would have window lights to
put in, you could get ladder and walk
up it to get in the bank, no doubt some
of the building would have large cracks
in, and you might be able to get few
stones as far away as your home, and
the water company could put down new
pipe, the property owners new pave
ments, and new road would no doubt
come in good. The fellows were most
all talking and joking while the first
bomb fell, after that couldn't get any
| VI IllcIu W tdlh W Ile. lUey Sdlu ! ain
a little to anxious to see these kind of
things for my own good, as am always
trying to get on truck details to the
front. | hope it doesn't get me into
troubleG am not as close to the front
now as | was when this occurred). The
next beautiful sight was lighting
bomb. They carry parachute with a
fuse burning magnesium. 1t lit up the
section | was in and a large surrounding
territory and lasted about two minutes.
They could see Us plain as DAY. Looks
as though they were after US, doesn't it?
We finally arrived at our sleeping quar-
ters 1890 a. m. None of the men were
injured and all were ready for few
hours sleep, at least | hardly lay down
until ! was sound asleep. We had dry
place to sit down and eat here, and three
straight weeks of pretty weather.
Outside of air raids the next excite
ment came in daytime. was in a build.
ing at the time-a very large building