Williams news., 1918-12-13
LIEUT.. E. H. DUFH|ELD
 WRITES FROM FRANCE


 The air planes are quite num- erous. Very few boches, they travel in punches of several. Saw nine of them one Sunday morning try to put down one of our balloons had failed The balloon came down, was hauled down undamaged. The fellow came out and down by para chute, O. K., still one could see the tracer bullets, first toward the balloon, then toward the man and none landed. Very poor craftsmanship. One night three sets of bombs were drop ped in the vicinity of our camp and twice they came low and opened machine gun fire and no damage resulted. One can hear the droning of the motors in time to get into a dug out, if there is such close at hand. but sometimes one does not waken and sometimes the fellow on guard fails to attend. so there you are and when they begin to crash it's too late as a rule and you had best lie still and wait it out.
 With shell fire you always hear it coming and flop down fat, which is quite proper and expected of you. Looked cow ardly at first, but it is proper. You soon know which one is sending the stuff your way and when it lets go you do likewise and they usually bracket their shots so you can tell about which way to go after the sec ond one comes in. When sev- eral are doing business it's best to be in a dug out or shell hole. You can tell which are gas shells. Their whine is not steady for being partly full of liquid, they wobble and when they break they make very lit tie noise and then like smashing a bottle containing water. The gas looks about like steam roll ing oht of the stack of an en- zine that is idle. There is one place where 8 fellow gets con- fused as to whether the stuff is coming out or going in and that IS for a moment or so when battery closely behind you op- ems up and until you can make sure it is such. Your first inn pulse is that there is some con- ing in that did not whine or that you overlooked the whine. The first such case happened to me at night and just on the oth- CT side of a car of timbers be- side which 1 was standing. At the second sound I suspected such but kept mighty close to that car of timbers while J I sneaked to the end and looked | around and there were the 75s close by showing by only the belch of fire that they were out. I was both sur prised and gratified for the first shot sure was close and had me guessing. I may be wrong but believe we send out 10. may be 20 to every one they send in.
 About the villages and towns. being destroyed. Anything within reach of the German ar tillery is damaged to the limit of their possibilities. Many. many are flat, not a rock in it's place. Merely known signs stacked in the heaps of rock.
 A village usually flourished at a cross road, consequently ! there were many and close to- gether. Therefore many of them came within the range so the misery has been forced or | many family. A few remain ed and stayed with their homes as the Huns advanced and have since been liberated. I have been Tn one or two such places. Old women only remain. They do not have much to say. I ex- pect they were mostly German sympathizers and were willing to go behind the Hun lines or at least did not care.
 The Hun surely thought he was safe for he had built really fine quarters and furnished |. them with pianos, billiard ta- bles, plush chairs, fine mirrors, electric lights, water systems,