The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-12-21


Bouconville. From there we went to st. |
| Agnan and from there back to Drury |
| woods, which is near Seicheprey, which |
we went to later, and from there we
started on the Chateau-Thierry drive at
a place called Boresh or a name similar
to that. We drove the Germans beyond
Epieds and were relieved
From there we went to the st. Mihiel
salient and drove TO town called Nignul-
| ~. From there we came to Ferdun, toI
the Argonne sector and Bots de Ormont,
which Is the worst place | ever saw, and
consider myself very fortunate In com
ing through it without being hit.
| Sergeant Clarity went to school, so he
did not have to go through that terrible
experience, and he must be all right
/ | had that picture which | sent you
taken in Toul and / have not had time
to have any more taken yet, but when
| get where / can | viii have some taken.
The fellows are beginning to 60 on
their seyen-day furloughs, that is, three
or four fellows are sent every three or
four days. About the only place / want
to go to is Paris, and then the sooner
they send me back to the states the bet
ter l will like it.
Il We passed a Red Cross hospital in a
town called lie Fauche and stayed over
night. While we were there the nurses
had a dance and l danced for the first
time since l left the states.
The cities are beginning to light up at
night now, and it certainly looks good.
The night that the armistice was de
clared we built big bonfires in the trenches
and set off rockets of all coors and the
rNla
Germans did the same thing over on their
side
Am going to Try to write every day
now, SO | will close, with love to ALL
Your son,
Priv GEORGE L. MESSER.
Mr.. and Mrs. w j. Shaw of 46 Maple
street have Just received letter from
their son, Private Clarence f. Shaw of
Company f, l0lst ammunition train. in
which he tells of the various sectors
where he has been engaged The letter,
written in Marcilly, France, Nov. IS, is as
follows:
Dear Mother and Father
Your letter of Oct. 2l ] received, but as
we have been moving from the Verdun
front to the rear, which has taken us
write, as we cannot mail letters when we
are on the move.
Well, mother, am able to write a little
more freely now than we were during
the war, so l will try to tell you what our
work was and what sectors we were on
and in what drives.
Our work is all done in the night, or
most all of it, and it is pretty hard work
as we get an all-night trip and we have
to take good care of our steeds.
We were depended upon by the artil-
lery, as they could not shoot the guns if
h they did not have the ammunition, and
that was our duty, to get the ammuni-
ton to them, and believe me we did al
though it was quite hard sometimes, as
the Huns would give us quite warm re-
ception from their artillery fire. Believe
me, it doesn't sound good to hear those
shells so whistling over your head and not
know whether the next one is going t.
get YOU or not But we have been very
lucky and pulled through all right.
We have been on five different sectors
The first was the scissors front w,
were there quite a while and then w,
went to the Toul sector. Then we werl
sent to Chateau Thierry and were in tina
drive. We made a big advance on tina
sector. The next sector was that of st
\ Mihiel, and that was hard one. From
4 there we went to the last and worst sec
4 tor of all, and that was Verdun. Their
was where we heard the last gun fire,
on the llth hour of the 18th day of tn
II llth month of 1918.
Now, mother, all / want you to do i
4 to get few apples and some more of tn
4 favorite eatablcs that / like and kee
i them on hand for me- as when l get bacI
i ! might want a few things, and | inten
TO do several things when / arrive.
Today is Thanksgiving and we are hay
ing chicken, and believe me | wou
rather be sitting at the table at hom
but we are lucky to have it, so VIII
should we kick?
We are living in small town name
Marcilly and l have a room with som
French people, and we have real niC
bed and it costs only 20 cents day, s
\ you see you can get bed pretty chea
in this country, but that is all as the W;
made everything else high. But cheer u
it's over now.
Well, guess l have written near
enough for this time, so ] will have
ring off, with best of love to you both al
n all. Hoping that these few lines rea'
you o. h, also hoping TO sec you 500
am your loving son,
CLARENCE.
Private Shaw's letter is given an o.
by Capt Roy g. Miner, who is son
Mr.. and Mrs. Sylvester Miner of Bratt
boro.