The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1918-11-06
Sept. %, 1918.

which is as follows:-
Sept. %, 1918.
Dear Folks:
Received all of your letters all o. X.
and am going to take few minutes
and try to answer them. We went
up to the front accomplished our aim
and are now back for a little rest.
This part was a little more active
than the first and | saw things that /
had often wanted to. / was kept
pretty busy delivering messages day
and night and as the weather has been
rainy for the last two weeks it was
pretty strenuous work. We moved
hbcut every day and that also helped
10 make it hard. We had dugouts to
lleep in in some places and believe
4 he, I'll bet there are millions of
bottles in them. l haven't got any
tet but no telling when you will get
hem. We were within KIN of the
Ines and one night | heard the loud
Et barrage | have ever heard. The
hrth fairly shook and it woke us
III up. Then / had to take a mes
hge and delivered it to the horse
i battalion right away. 1t was about
a. m. and the rain was more than
+ koming down. | started up my ma
,khine and got a block and run into
! puddle and killed my engine after
chat / couldn't start it so went back
and reported the matter. Another
fellow was detailed to go but he
couldn't start his so 1 borrowed one
of the other fellows machines and
got away all right. Talk about
rgs!ses7atnast wees as nasttippery as ice and blocked
with trucks and artillery and every
thing else. The barrage helped to
tighten up the roads, something like
lightning so / got along without any
more than one or two little falls and
went to the place | was supposed to
find them. Well they had left and
no one knew where to. l secuted
around and finally found fellow who
Thought he had seen them going
down a certain road back to camp, SO
away 1 went / got along all right
until came to a truck with an obser-
walton balloon fastened to 1t by.
cable. The crew that was moving
the balloon said they saw one CT the
companies go past so went down
the road and managed to get rlght IN
hack of a big cannon as they fired it
off. That surprised me and the con-
cussion nearly knocked me cf the
machine. / didn't find anything SO
turned around and went back and got
about a block past the observation
balloon and ran right into telephone
wire they were putting up again. They
have to take all the wires down wher
they move these ballons. 1t caught
me under the ear and raked the hldt
off one side of my face and nose.
went on and came to the place l went
to originally and then soldier salc
he had seen quite few soldiers dowr
in a woods and | went down there ant
plowed through clay field and over
some railroad track and finally go'
hold of a fellow whe said he knew
they were in this woods. The wood:
were about Is KIN. long and / dom
know how wide and practically i'm
passable for a motorcycle and 1T wa
filled with soldiers. So the fellow
helped me on the main road and
chased in the woods and happened Il
find some fellows out of one OF tn
truck companies / used to know am
he said they were down from where
had first hit the woods. Just thel
a captain came along and he pointe.
out where they were and l wentsbacl
and after looking around for about a.
hour found them right near the plac
4 was an awful night. There wer
guns everywhere and it sounded lik
a gigantic thunderstorm or bowlin
alley. The next day prisoners bega
to come in and long strings of ther
went by for week. They were
tough looking bunch of men but wer
all dressed pretty fair and were @
pretty good size. Then we move
up to the old front line and up in tn
dugouts. never care about seein
any more battle fields. / went ou
and looked around for souvenirs br
most Of them had been picked up. A
the fellows got q lot of German pi:
tolls and rifles and gas masks or he
NETS but as we have no way OF dl.
posing of them / didn't get any. l.
get one some time though and sen
you. We had gas alarms in tw
nights while there but / don't thin
the gas got down that far from II
front. F
was up to the Germans old line
They are all torn up there is not
spot of ground 10 feet square hardll
but that a shrapnel didn't hit. III
Germans had elaborate trenches mac
Of concrete with curtains on the vii
dows and mission furnifure with p
amos and large mirrors and ever,
thing else. A company in the supp
train got dandy little grand piar
and mirror about 6 feet long by
feet wide. You should see the tow
that the Germans line runs througl
!, One was almost level7ed TO the grour
and the rest were completely destro'
Continued on Pago Four)