The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-09-19
Rhodes Tells Of
Fighting in France

Relatives OF Eoy Rhodes in Canon
City have recently received two let
ters from him. one OF them dated July
rs. and the other August o, which
have been handed The Record by his
sister, Mrs. Jesse H. Dorndorff. for
publication. In the first one he says:
y will address you a few lines to
let you know that l am alive and feel
ing fine. am one OF the lucky ones
again. have just been through the
biggest fight the United States army
has been engaged in over here. It
LASTED for two days. and we sure put
the Boches on the run. We were
hungry. tired and thirsty when it was
over. We took the enemy by sur
prise and captured many prisoners,
cannon. machine guns and much am
munition. l don't know whether
killed any Boches or not. but had the
pleasure of shooting at them. and
took good aim every time shot.
saw lots of them fall.
VIC udu 6oou many ldhh5 Win
us. ! suppose you have read about
them? They sure are great things in
open warfpre, 1t was an exciting
time, but all OF our fellows were there
with the goods. We had lots OF ar
tiIlery back OF us. and it all opened
up at once. We were lying down in
No-Man's-Land when the order was
given to advance. and we all started
forward at the same time. We went
right through the enemy's shell fire
and kept right on till about noon. We
started at daylight At moor we
rested. got some water. rearranged
our companies and started on again.
We kept the drive going till about 10
O'Clock that night. All of the time
the Germans were shooting at US with
rifles. artillery and machine guns. but
we piowed through and kept the
Boches on the move We dug our
selves in that night and held our line
and drove the Germans back some
more. We got relieved that night
and were a weary bunch OF men.
Il have been on the front for nearly
two months and have been under shell
fire most of the time. Our principal
occupation when not chasing the Ger
mans has been digging trenches.
guess we will get some rest now It
has been difficult for me to write for
the last two months. but will try to
write oftener now that times are lit
tie less strenuous. There is no neces-
sity for you to be slow about writing.
although there is some excuse for me-
That letter from Dad was the FIRST one
to reach me. and l read and reread
1t good many times. Tell Dad that
when l come home we will swap war
stories l expect this war is a little
different from the one he was in. He
did not have airplanes flying over
him and shooting down at him. or
trying to drop bombs on him like they
do on u.s."
In his second letter of August 9. Mr..
Rhodes says: Il went to headquarters
this morning 10 mail some letters. and
the one wrote you on July 2 was still
there. and will send them both to-
gether. II was properly addressed
and stamped. and I do not know why
1t had not been forwarded. Its delay
was probably from the carelessness
OF some 'dapey' clerk
I'VE are taking It easy now on quite
an extended front. The farm crops
in France this year are sure fine. The
wheat is the best ever saw and they
have lots of IL. Wheat. oats, sugar
beets and potatoes are the main crops
in this part OF the country. We took
a lot of wheat fields from the Germans
when we made our big drive The
wheat was nearly ready to cut. in fact.
the Boches had harvested some OF ii
and II was in the shock.
Il get my letters pretty regularly
now. and you can write as often as
you like. Well. bye-bye for the pres
ent"