The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-05-11

from the papers tnal my regiment mas
been at the front. You say that yor
| would like to know some of my expert
ences, without naming any places. Well
for one thing my luck was with me
The first Sunday | was at the front
saw two German planes brought down
one right after the other. The machines
went 10 feet into the ground. They
fell about 300 feet from me, and i,
| did not take me long to get there. Ev
cry night the German planes would
| come over and keep us from sleeping
We would run for a dugout, and they
| were full of mud or water, and if not
that it would be rats as big as cats
Then we would come out and 90 to
bed when the danger was over, and in
two or three hours the planes were back
again.
II am driving big English truck up
to the front and back again. We al
| ways go up at night after dark. Some
nights you could not see your hand in
front of you, and the banks at either
size were hundred feet down in some
places, with rocks or river at the bot.
tom. but l did not go over. We had a
heavy snow storm for two days around
the 4th of March, but we went up to the
front just the same. The Huns shells
were coming over. When they hit, they
hit hard. Some of the holes they made
were big enough to put three of our
trucks IN, but two out of five do not
go off. We do not 90 up every night
but every other night We went up to
the front about the 18th Of February
and came back the last of March. We
went over the road, had fine weather
and had good time on the way There
were something like 100 trucks in all
that constitutes train.
I'VE stopped over night at one place
and IN the morning one truck caught
fire. 1t was loaded with gasoline, about
II barrels. They went up in the air
and nearly burned the town up.
eve are much nearer the front than
we were when we first came up. We
can see the American shells land in the
German lines. and can see them explode
We are up in the mountains that you
used to tell us so much about. We are
in territory that used to belong to
Germany, and our big guns can fire
right into German towns, but they
don't seem to do it. | was up within
one mile of the Hun lines, they could
hear our motor running, and that is as
near as we got them. Well, they caught
Hun spy right where | was, and this
was what he did:
"His house was situated on top OF
hill where the Germans could see
him, and when a train of trucks, OF
teams, would 90 by at any time of the
day the spy would take out a white
horse to water Well some Americans
went up there when a train was going
by, and stopped him from taking the
white horse out We did not get shelled
that day, but many a train was lost by
that old fellow.
There was another young spy about
l. years old and they got him, too
France is full of spies.
eve got some good Smelling here g
few nights ago. The shells landed
about II feet from our truck. and put
one truck out of order. We had to &C
back and leave it there, but recovered
il later that night. One night we LEFT
for the front at 80, got back early
next morning. 1t was so dark We coull
not sec, but we all arrived safely
"There were two German plane:
| brought down by two Americans driv
| ing a French machine, They brought
| them down inside of six minutes after
| leaving the ground. l call that pretty
| good. | saw some pretty good flying
| today, by a French machine. He wa:
going over l5G miles an hour. He wa:
going some,
I'VE have had some cold, rain,
| weather lately. / think the spring
weather back home is better than it i:
| here, so far anyway. The country i
very pretty, something like Vernon
and New Hampshire, but | like thu
good old Z. S. A. the best.
| 81 have not seen George Willard 10
| some time. His regiment and the l04tl
| have lost a lot of men. ! have not seer
! Dick, either, for some time. | won I b.
able to see him until we go back t
our rest camp. | heard he did not cOm'
up this trip, but was on guard of some
| thing behind the lines. He may not b
able to write to you until he re join
| his company.
II received three letters from yol
lately and one was dated Nov. >, 1877
| (speedv, wasn't ito. You asked M
how l was getting along. | always sa.
pie pie. or Washington cakes, or any
thing of that kind but am getting b.
all right. This is all the news l ca,
think of at this time. Hope YOU ar
all we'll Love to all, from your lovin
son. Walter j. Phillips