The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1918-12-28
From Ralph Lyle

The following interesting letter
was received, by his folks here, from
Ralph Lytle, last week. Ralph does
not guarantee the correctness Of
spelling of places In France and
Belgium. Neither do we; SO here
goes:
Verdun, Nov. %, 1918.
DEAR DAD:-I have just lost out
on getting this In rs q fathers letter,
rs have just rolled In from long trip
OF eight days. There were two Of
flcers and three Of US enlisted men.
We were inspecting the railroad from
Sedan to Contains; also to Longery
on into Belgium; also saw many
towns and cities where SO many
atrocities were committed and heard
the stories first hand from the people
who bore the brunt Of 1t.
/ could sit here and write Of them
for week. viii tell some, although
they are far from pleasant to hear.
Am sending you some post cards
from Arlon, Belgium. one of the
prettiest towns ever saw. Only had
five francs so couldn't buy many.
One OF these shows the town square
where the Bosche commander of the
place had his men gather up l25 peo-
pie, including young and old Of both
sexes, lined them up, and had these
people shot just for pastime. This Ia
just one instance Of many. OF course
1t is second hand, but hearing the
people tell who saw 1t I believe It; 30
would you.
To change the subject. The big
question is, when are we going home.
Soon hope, rs we are in the first
1900 to come over here, think we
have a good chance to get home soon
after the first Of January.
We were in the thick OF the fight
In the Argonne forrest where it
ended. And say, 1t was grand fight,
too. The Yanks put over about the
greatest barrage In history.
That is one of the hardest parts of
France to fight in; but the Yanks
walked through the Prussian Guards,
(the pride Of the KAiser's army, just
the same as the rest of the bunch,
and the Germans thought-Gott nit
UnS. l guess they had their Gott
mixed with Satan. II the armistice
hadn't been signed, we would have
been at the Rhine in q short time.
On this trip we Just returned from,
we saw where the Huns hal all
preparations made for retreat clear
home. Was In Lougery when Gen.
Pershtng formerly entered 1t, and I
had the honor of saluting him per-
sonally, and having 1t returned; in
fact his car darned near ran over me-
The roads were lined with prisoners
returning (of all nationalities). The
different ways they were dressed
would have been Imaginable, had they
not looked so pitiful; all were hungry
and haif-dressed, but the Allies met
them with rattons AZ fast as possible.
When we entered the German
towns that had been under Belgian
rule and outrage for four years, they
were the happ,est people ever saw.
Bable and were In the center of a
group, listening to their stories, and
when we had to Leave, the spoxes-
man took hold Of our hands and
made a short talk; and the gist
of 1t was, I'VE Belgians have been
outraged four years by the Huns, but
thank God the Americans have come
as conquerors, and at last our homes
are SAFE" BY that time we were SO
badly fused up, wa retreated double
time. We found some dum-dum
shells In Boche ammunition dump.
The Captain I was with. showed one
to German captain who had been
left behind to turn over some rolling
stock. OF course he denied using
them, but why should they have
them In the field II not to use. 1t was
quite amusing to me to see the differ
ent kinds Of wheels they had on their
care and trucks ito take the place of
rubber). They even had spring
wheels on their bycicles.
As finishing touch to this letter,
I'll give you an idea as to where 1
have been. Now follow up the map
and battle line. First, landed at
Liverpool, then at La Harve, to
Islultte, Dion, Chamont, Nancy