The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1918-09-12
AMERICAN ENGINEERS
Often IN dire Peril
Stringing Barbed Wire Entangle-
ments in France
HOME MANS EXPERIENCES
Working Under Fire of Machine
Guns and Artillery - Driven
from Cosy Bed by German
Shell - Terrific Bombardment
July 18th.
August 11th, 1918.

August 18th, 1918.
Dear Mr.. Jordan :
1t is some time since | last wrote
to you to give you an account of
our doingS over here; in fact, |
told you then about our return
from the British front. From that
front we went down to the Marine
and as we have since left again, |
can tell you a little of what we
did. Of course, even now, | can't
mention actual names, but we
were on a section of the front that
afterwards proved decidedly ex-
citing. When we first went to
that section it was comparatively
quiet and we were quite distance
behind the actual lines, so were a.
BILE to work in day time. We were
digging trenches and putting up
wire and it got rather monoto-
nous. We moved camp pretty
frequently and it was series of
move, dig trenches and move. I'VE
had been camping in woods, but
one afternoon we moved into a
nice little town and were placed
in billets. The people had moved
out in a great hurry and left all
their furniture in the house. The
officers quarters and company of
flee were in a really handsome res
idence just on the edge of town,
and we fixed ourselves in grand
style; good beds, chairs, tables
and all the comforts of home, and
we were congratulating ourselves
on our good fortune when a
French officer came. in and asked
us if we intended staying there
that night, and when we said yes,
he shrugged his shoulders and
smiled. Then he told us the Ger
mans had got the range of the
town with their artillery, and the
night before had shelled it for
four hours. However, the captain
decided to take a chance and we
went to bed. and | went to sleep.
About II O'Clock | was awakened
by a Whee-ee-ee-ee Bangl and
found that the Boche was sending
over his visiting cards. The cap
tain called to me to get the COM
pany out and go to some trenches
outside the town and take cover.
So we scattered out along the
road and hurried out of the dan
ger zone and luckily got away
without any casualties. I'VE re-
manned in the trenches that night
and the Boche continued to shell
the town for 15minutes at time,
and then keeping quiet for Is
minutes. He kept this up till four
in the morning and then quit. The
next morning the captain decided
the place wasn't very healthy, so
we moved into the woods about |
two miles from the town, but
can tell you, we were disappointed
at having to leave our comforta-
bic houses. The only damage he |.
had done to us was to slightly |
wound some of our horses and |
but not a man was hit.
Later on we moved up closer to
the Marine, and a little later I was
sent out with a small detachment |
of the company, to the advanced |
engineer tool dump. There we
were under shell fire most of the
time, although the spot where we
were camped was sheltered. We
camped close to large culvert
under the road, where we could
get good shelter in case of shells
falling close. All the work we did
there had to be done at night, as
the Boche was only about 1900 |
yards distant across the river, and
we were in plain view. We had
charge of the engineer work on !