Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1918-07-24
Another Excellent Letter to Friend
Here To ST. \bout Exciting Ex-
perienc. 20 the Trenches
GERMANS USE L %
OF Ga d ATTACKS
Writer Says He is on Guaro Gas
All the Time. Walked i'm dis
Sleep One Night, Looking
for 1t.
Somewhere in France
June 10, 1918


Dear Mae
Having all afternoon will try and
write you few lines. / am all Q.
K. and just got back from the trench
es, We sure are having fine weather
and believe summer has come, and
good weathec is sure a great thing
in this big war, for when we are az
the front and in the trenches we are
up most all night, so you can see we
like good weather, as the nights sure
get long. At that the good old Iowa
boys can stand it, and we all will.
know We can fo- we have, and we
all think that the Huns are not as
good to fight as they say they are,
and they will find out when they
come over and they will have good
hard fight on, and will find us look
ing for them. Say | am going to try
and tell you all / can of the last time
up. We were mot iR>the same place
this time. We were to the right of
where we were the last time. When
we got to the trenches the boys who
cane out had been gassed, and be-
lieve me the gas played its part, get
ting the best of some of them. The
Germans are giving them all gas, and
that's all they are fighting with and
have ever since the opening Of the
big drive. They are trying hard to
get prisoners, and when the Germans
start ovec, take prisoners at any
cost are the orders. Say and when
they send over that protector gas,
YOU sure can look for them to come,
and in some sectors they did attempt
it, but were stopped by our machine
gunners, who had worked in gas
masks for several hours, and the
raiding parties were driven back,
leaving number of dead and
wound in the entanglements. Say
believe me they sure did have the
run on us with that gas. is hard to
get much sleep, as you never can tell
when it's coming. They will have to
go some to get me, as | am on the
look out all the time, and all that
have on my mind is gas, gas. The
other night | came out OF my dug
out, and in my sleep, l walked up
the trench few feet and guard
halted me and asked where are you
going Riggs? ! answered am look
ing foc gas, so you see l sure have
it on my mind. But the time came
one night after that when there was
gas and 1t did not take us long to get
our gas masks on, but luck was with
us, as the gas was not in our sector;
we just got a little of 1t, for they had
put over projectoc gas attack on
the French just to the right of us.
We have had luck with us, as we lost
and we have spent most of our time
in the trenches, for when the other
companies meet with hard luck we
go up and take their places. And
say its hard, but when you see the
dead and wounded they don't have
to ask us more than one times and we
are there. And the best of all is
when we get up and in the trenches
its all over, and we are all getting
to think the Huns do not like to
start on us. There was just one
time that | got in on good big fight
and that was the morning of the 5th
of March. I believe you know all
about it. There were four Corps. out
OF our company up that morning to
see the trenches and to look things
all over, and say 1t was 1880 in the
morning the Huns opened up with all
the artillery they had, and / sure
did think my time was up, and all
we could do was to stay in our dug
outout until they thought we' had
enough, and they did not believe we
had enough until daylight, as they
stopped then, and it didn't take us
long to get out, for that is the way
they get us, is to let the artillery run
them in the dugouts and then como
over, but they would have been out
of luck that morning, as our artillery
had stopped them in front of our
wire. 1t sure is great life and
when a man thinks he would like a
little fight all he has to do is just
start out over No Mans Land and he
sure will get all the fight he is look
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