The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1918-12-20
|OM VIM. SPELL
IN FRANCE
Brest, France. Nov. oath, 1918. /,
Dearest Brother:

Well, feel something like bird
out Of a cage this morning as this is
the first letter that we have been al
lowed to write and tell where we are,
SO you see here come with this let
ter dated and the name of tht place
am now at, so you can imagine how
good we feel. Well, will tell you
first that we landed at Glasgow Scot
End on the Goth day of September
~ it was on Sunday morning and
lhere we disembarked and boarded
train and here we travelled all
through Scotland in to England, ar
irving at Winchester, the following
Monday morning about 5 a. M, and
here we stayed in an American rest
camp for three days when we left
there on the 3rd day Of October for
South Hampton, England arriving
there same day and we embarked on
an English vessel and sailed across
the English Channel, and wild night
we spent, | tell you, as we were in
dangerous waters. We made an aver
age of 26 miles per hour across this
Channel and we arrived at LaHavre,
France, the 4th day of October. We
arrived at the Aharbor about 5 a. III.
but could not get across the subma-
sine net until 7 a. H., so at this hour
Me net was lifted and we pulled in
% the docks. Here we disembarked
and went out to Camp about 4 miles
out on the edge of the city and it is no
small city, something like three hun
bred thousand people there. Here
we stayed till the 18th day of October
rand we left there after being quaran-
tined for 10 days for Spinal Menin-
gifts but it was false alarm as the
boy did not have it, so we boarded
one of these French trains and start,
ed on our way about AS p M, with
IS men to the car or horses and
this is no story as they carry 8 horses
or IS men and on this train we took
our travel rations with us and we
rode from Friday till Sunday morn
ing about $50 A. NJ, and we arrived
here at Brest after very interesting
trip down around Paris, which trip
! enjoyed very much, seeing many
things of interest We have not seen
any4of the front line trenches yet and
that the troops are all supplied and
+ do not suppose we will as we have
been assigned to the S. O. S. and will
stay here till all the troops are sent
: home, as that is our job to see to it
see that they get what they want.
| am proud that ! belong to the S. 0.
s., as General Pershing praises his
S. @. S. very highly, | tell you. I
company is here at work on the docks
getting every thing in readiness to
* art carrying the troops back home.
Aand a Nip load will leave here today
Tor the States but they are all sick
and wounded 1 understand they will
be sent home first, which is right /
think Don't you?
have seen the ship we came over
on here in this harbor since we have
been here and | tell you it made me
feel blue, to see it out there and |
couldnot get on it to go home. But
: ! hope it will not be long now till l
canswalk aboard one and hear it blow
and pull out from docks and turn
straight forward and begin blowing
its way through the mighty waters of
the Atlantic towards the dear old U.
S. A. The name of the ship we came
across on is the H. NJ S. Balmoral
Castle, it was very nice ship and
vas fast ship but of course it could
notSrun fast; had to stay along with
the convoy which included IA ships in
all besides the subchasers and the bat
tie cruisers which were our guards
across and as we entered the war
zone we were met there by the Eng,
lish fleet, containing 18 chasers and
battle cruisers and they accompani-
ed us on the rest of the way, dis,
lance Of about 4 hundred miles of
dangerous waters. We were all fore
ed to stay out on deck with our life
belts on and the sense of excitement
was great, and at one time it was
very fogy and the ships could not see
each other so they wanted to change
the course and a shot from one Of the
6-inch guns was fired to note the
change of direction and we all
thought it was sub so | wish you
could have seen us move around We
travelled the zig-zag course all the
time and one day we got warning
that subs were sighted ahead of us
about l hundred miles, so we turned
around and went back for at least 2
hundred miles and went another
course. 1t was all very exciting trip