Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-12-28
WAL TER BANKS
DESCRIBES THRILLS
Wilmington Soldier Has Had Some
Exciting Experiences IN War
Zone of Europe.

The family of Walter Banks, at 2ln2
I.ammot street, have received several
interesting letters from the soldiers.
Corporal Walter Banks enlisted April
5, 1918, and was sent 10 Camp Johnston,
Jacksonville, Florida He landed III
France, July -, in his own words, having
crossed the ditch to get into the big
fight" /" lie Is IN the QuartcrnaSter Corps,
Motor Truck Co No i2S and has been
stationed at LcIiavre since he landed there.
He is working nc an expert on assembling
cars taken apart sent over from this
country Since America is still sending
cars over to France, his family do not OK
poet Banks to be released yet. One Of the
let tcrs he has written on tho envelope
Dads Christmas letter, " and it was writ
ten November oath, the day designated
IN France as Dads Day" This is what
i SAYS.
lie Havrc, Nov -, 1918
Dear Dad lust few lines to let YOU
know tins Is some big day for the boys Of
the s. H. F. in France ! suppose you
have read in The papers that this day has
been designated rs Dads Day and
each soldier boy can write TO Dad without
the letter being censored We arc allowed
to tell where We arc. where we have been
and what We are doing, 50 I will tell you
all about my experience IN France. We
came over on the big transport America,
and landed Al BreSt. ,llly -. but we had
some excitement on the way over. On
July 6. we were steanling along at a pretty
good clip when. Al about { As y. m, some
thing was sighted which was taken for
sub. SO the cruiser and destroyer nearest It
opened tirc aud If il was a sub, they sure
did make ShoTt work ot Il When We
landed at Preet Nc hiked through the
city about tao miles north 10 pontanzen
Barracks. rhich by the wsy. was used by
Napoleon and his army
have beea1 on CONVOY work and have
seen lot Of the country, which is beauti
full as where VIC went there had been no
fighting We have some real American
locomot., IS and cars which are operated
bv Amencan soldiers and II looked queer
10 Sec . railroad crew in Q. ID old tlrabl
clothes but they are Jolly lot of men.
have been IN Paris fvs times and have
seen a good bit of ;hat city One day We
were there from : a m until 6 p. m and
most of tho time We spent sight seeing.
We took a subway car cut to the Place &c
Ia Concordc and saw the big EIEel Tower.
but were not allowed - 60 in there On
account Of anti-alrcraf; guns | u,ls in
Napoleon 5 tomb but he vault was cover
ed with sand bags The tomb sure is a
beautiful place / also saw the church
which was struck by shell from Ger
man long range gun on Good Friday. when
. coed many people we're killed We had
our first taste of war on August | 3t i30
a. m, when jerry tthat Is what We call
tho Hum came over in a org bombing DIanc
and started in 10 shoot uD The city
We were sleeping in tents IN our motor
park when sll Of 4 sudden We were awaken
ed out Of a sound sleep by one of the boys
yelling iir rand" We came out of the
tents tout sweet in our shirt tails. and
b. tha time the anti-air craft glns were in
action uuon the hill. tutting up . barra ge
and it was some SIGHT TO see the shrapncl
bur> ting up in the ar also there was
some noise, One bomb dropped III a street
about a. wide as Lammot street, and 1t
made a hole about l2.feet deep from
building TO building.
The nearest one 10 us was about three
blocks away and when it went off it
shook things about Ike the powder mills
do when they let &C.
At present am in big motor recep-.
ton park working on sll kinds Of trucks
one day on repair work and the next day
putting up bodies that have been knocked
down and shipped over here, and We
grease and oil the trucks, then fit up the
body and put them on the road.
/ suppose they had big time at home
the day the armistice was signed, but
then bet we had bigger one over here
Well, Dad, you men IN the shipyards
have been doing your bit building ships to
carry troops and supplies over here, but
don't forget that We have to come back.
1t is too far to swim, so you must not let
up on the good work until the last one of
us IS back home, and | am sure we will all
be proud of you.
Corporal Banks was driver for four
years for the Brandywine Fire Co, and is
an expert in the work he is doing al lie
HavTe