The Oskaloosa herald., 1918-04-25


the house2 You spoke of being
thrilled at seeing the German helmet
someone sent back SO | thought per
haps you might like some little junk
from some of the battlefields. ! saw
train loads of suitable souvenirs to-
day..
Fritz has just started to send shells
at an observation balloon right above
US. 1t is all very nice as long as he
gets his range correct. They ap.
proach with roar that makes 1t seem
as II the shells are coming straight
at you. Only three have come over
and if his usual system continues an
other one is about due to arrive. AS
one of the Staff remarked, "a shell
is small and France is large" The
(another one came pasD windows~of
this hut are made of oiled cloth so
! can't see what is, going on outside,
but from the sound, the air must be
absolutely full of planes for balloon
protection. They play many tunes
with their engines. Another one
came in and the Boche gunners got
a lovely burst near the balloon. All
those before failed to explode. The
balloon is being moved to one side a
little TO complicate the reconing OF
the gunners. There is another He
is getting worse. 1t keeps the OBJ
lserver who inhabits the balloon from
going to sleep on duty want to
duck every time one comes over. An
other one.
Haven't seen an American paper
since left G. II. @. week ago. I'll
be away behind the times.
Got the Balloon.
February 2Sth
Everyone is busy this afternoon and
don't seem at all inclined to bother
with me. was going to take nap
but thought better of it--for the
present at least.
No mail has arrived for me and ]
hope the Chaplain is holding ii until
/ get back. | get no news from the
States here and will be W !, behind
the times when leave. That ought
to be about next Tuesday, and I'll be
glad to get back with our own troops.
Yesterday morning | went up to
the line with the General staff Intel.
ligence Officer We left at $50 and
walked all over the front of the Div
ision sector. Crawled along to one
place where we got good view of
Bocheland from close up. 1t was in
the farther end OF an old village which
occasionally received attention from
enemy trenches. We didn't tarry
long admiring the view. Coming
back we nearly put our foot in it by
keeping to the duckboards. Fritz
was strafing pill-box in our path
and doing it accurately with big
shells We carefully made wide
detour over the shell holes and vast
ed no time doing it. Life in that
particular pill-box must have been
anything but pleasant.
In the afternoon | went to the camp
of the machine gunners and persuad-
ed them to explain their gun to me.
They were nice about it and insisted
that | stay to tea with them. You
know my attitude towards tea, but
they had some excellent toast. !
wish could have had six slices of it
instead of a very conventional two
pieces. Today we went to the line
again but started late, stayed a short
time and saw nothing of interest.
1910 p. m. l am most unfortunate.
After | wrote this afternoon Topped
on the bed and knew nothing until al
most six. At about FIVE the Boche
went after our friend the balloon next
| door, first with shells as he did the
other day, and then tri-plane dived
out of tho clouds at it, He was pur.
sued by British plano which could
not keep up or get a chance to fire.
Although all the machine guns around
the place were after him, the Boche
emptied his gun into the balloon and
escaped. The observers took to
their parachutes and the balloon look
ed sick when it reached earth. All
this is second hand for, like a loafer,
+ slept through it all 1t must have
been an Aciting show while it lasted.
Some of our planes just went over
to tickle the enemy with bombs. 1t
is beautiful night.
Peek At Army Life.
(Ncxt Morning)
I'm borrowing the desk of the Gen
eral Staff officer without his knowl-
edge. have hard time getting
along by writing on my knee.
Nothing happens. | got UP very
late today and after breakfast stayed
in the General Staff office while 9TH
ers transacted business elsewhere
My duties were to answer the phone.
Later got my hair cut and feel aw-
fully spooned. Pm going to wash
It after a while.
am anxious TO get back to the reg
iment. They have moved since
last heard | think. Also I'd like to
get to Disbursing Quartermaster Of
our Service to collect February pay
and mileage for this trip. There will
be quite a bit OF mileage, too, but it
won't hurt me any. I'll try and get