Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1918-11-07
WILLIAM BLASS TELLS
OF GOING OVER TOP
Canaan Soldier Writes Inter-
estingly of Experiences
In France.

IoA the SVlst EnBlneers train, A. IL F~
has received his baptism OF fire N
the world confagration, which appaw-
emily is coming to an end. In q. Ist-
ter to his mother and sister, Priyaas
Blass, writing under date of Oct. d.
says:
Dear Mother and Sister:
/ don't have much time to write buA
tonight 1 am on stable guard ana
have plenty OF time. / have receives
all your letters but as yet have nos
seen any of the Connecticut Westerns
They will probably all come in COCA
time. l am in my billet now in n
good chair, which we made ourselves
in front of an open fire place in whfczM
dandy fire is burning. Can you in-
agine 1t, and only Is miles from tina
front lines? So close that F'ritzie sends
over a few shrapnel once in n wnths
to let us know he is stih kicking. Ana
it's about his last kick, too, guess.
for l see by tonights paper tina
kaiser has started to squeak for peaco.
and we'll he might, for he La gettfnw
an awful beating. II certainly In N
wild place. j have been in some on
the places where Jerry stayed and be-
lieve me, he left some palaces.
don't blame them for wanting tho
war to last Electric lights, running
water and pianos in the dugouts, which
were of concrete. Did you ever won
der how it must seem to be near a
battle front? Well, I'll tell you ~
nearlv no cap of xvhaf bax,a ..~m
You go along a nice road, as gooA
as any Of our state roads>at home
This is the engineers work for OUR
fighting troops must have supplies
On both sides at regular intervals
you will see barbed wire entanglo-
ments and trenches and here ass
there dugout. These are In case or
emergency. AS you go up farfhsw.
you leave the good towns and begam
to meet places all shot up. Some CT
the houses are shot up so bad that
you would think they were stone
walls. All of this was unnecessary
but they did 1t Just the same. On
every hand you win see small grave
yards In which rs buried sonre poaw
fellow who got clicked Off by fhe
ing around but they are soon buried
All along the engineers can be seen
doing their bit in every way. Also
the signal corps putting in telephone
lines just like we have at home. By
and bye you will notice lots of places
in the road and IL you ask anyone
they will tell you that's where Fritzk
sends over his nigh explosives to teas.
up the road to stop the traffic. Ha
most generally shells for the cross
roads as that will stop the traffic two
ways. There you will see the newt
able M. p. and he hasn't a very de-
sirable job either as he has to stick
around when the whizz-bangs are fall
ing and warn the traffic and watcA
for gas shells. You will hear very nttis
firing in the daytime but at night yom
can hear one steady roar from our
big pieces and once in while yom
can hear a shell burst from the othor
side. 1t used to keep me awake
nights but now / don't mind IL. We
were camping up quite close one nighA
and they got our range and began tc
fire but we all ducked and got away
to a dugout. I slept there all night
for i grabbed my blanket before
started. / have been UP to the third
lines twice and nobody seems very
excited up there. We turned our
wagon around a shell hole about IN
feet wide which had just been made
a few minutes before. asked a laa
who stayed there IL they shelled them
much there and he said: "oh, yo@.
right smart sometimes" We didnx
finger any This was up in some re-
Gently captured German territory or
and that they had held for quite .
time and IL was nice up there. They
had a narrow gauge track and bar
racks and beer gardens. / guess they
must have used IL for a rest camm
rom the looks of things. But the
dough- boys turned the trick and wa
have a winning army. They
.alk about going over the top much
the same as / used to tell you guessed
I'd go to the movies. Nothing seems
% worry them. And our artillery is
here every way, as we'll as the avia-
ors. You can count as many as 20
balloons up at one timo
Turing the day from our place and
when a Boche machine dares to poRo
lis machine over our lines the anti
lircraft guns begin to talk and down
yoes his shanty. But 1 am thinking
t will soon be over for peace rs I'm
he air If IL ever was. have seen
hree or four thousand Hun prisoners
come in, in one herd, and they seeua
o be ticl1led that the war is over fer
hem They are tough bunch bw4
Mostly middle-aged men or hnys OF IT
IT Is and some younger The boys WIN
lad them were some of our dough
,oys and cavalrymen and proud-yon
couldn't have snapped places vita
hem for farm. We went into some
German territory and the trenches