Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-07
Somewhere in Italy.


Mother Dearest
We are now settled in our winter
headquarters at the front, having
moved two days ago-and oh! what
cold place it is-as you know
we have been waiting orders at
little village behind the lines for
nearly two weeks and when the
order came to move on we We're
all so anxious to get busy again that
we packed up and moved in a day.
We came in convoy with our twenty
ambulances-two trucks and staff
car, moving about 20 kilometers to
our present location. We are now
at the very foot of one of the noun
tains and living in beautiful old
house, however without all the COM
forts. A long lane is Immediately
in front of the old building, with
trees on either side, and under these
trees we park our machines. for they
must be hidden from the aero
planes. We are just a few kilo-
meters from the lines. but cannot
see them for here the lines are on
the mountains and just over the one
that is next to us. What a cheer
full feeling. it is to live day by day
and not know what morning you
may awaken to find an 'unwel-
coined friend" just above you. To
bring it home, it is the same as
though our headquarters were in the
old Miller farmhouse at Penbrook
and the Italians held the golf course
just on the hill at Reservoir Park
in front of it and the top and down
the other side as far as the MEM
orial'-then from there on the Aus
trians. There is plenty of action
here and it looks as though we will
have a very busy winter unless too
much snow falls. All the noun
yet the real snow has not started
to fall, so it looks as though we will
have a very severe winter.
We can see the many artillery
dugouts and placements from here
and the noise from the guns never
cease. When the larger guns open
fire at night. there is one lively
time; causing the panes of glass in
our windows here to rattle so, that
at times they almost break. At
night is the beautiful time to watch
the action, for all along the top
go up-and many other kinds of
go up-and many other kind of
lights appear,
A Different War"
Down here things are so differ
ent from what we have been accus-
toned to in France that it almost
seems we are in a different war.
OF course the mountains make a
great difference and as for the snow,
that speaks for itself. Now as to
our living here in the house. 1t is
place where everything has been
l.. i Id 81. 1
looks like a barn-stoves were
thought of first and after the first
day we managed to get a couple of
small kerosene burners, so we put
them in one room and lived in
there. AS yet we have been un-
successful in getting more, conse-
quentlyt you may imagine our con-
ditions-we all keep hats and coats
en-and slowly but surely are be-
coming more accustomed to the cold
and situation.
There is very little H2O to be
had and what we can accumulate
we save for the cars. Many of the
men have not washed since their
arrival to say nothing of myself.
Friday was the first time in 3 days
that / could get enough water to
enjoy simple wash and shave and
and you cannot guess where I got
it-when l drained the radiator
of my machine, l caught the H2O in
a bucket and it quite answered the
purpose. Chairs were our next
necessity, so the Italian Lieutenant
connected to our section said, I'VE
can get all we want in an abandoned
moving picture theater in the viii
lage just a quarter of a mile away"
We took a couple of machines and
after winding in and out of many
small narrow streets (you know the
StreetS) we came to the theater.
A bomb had struck the place dur
ing an air raid some days ago, but
the town has been evacuated for
some months. We enter the build
ing-took all the chairs we needed,
incidentally finding q couple of
tables and loaded them all in the
machines. This little town is al
most entirely deserted, there is only
heap of ruins, houses with their
roofs gone, their walls torn by
shell fire-the storm certainly has
visited this once undisturbed little
village.
Left Everything Behind
The peopls left everything be-
to last for few days. While our
Italian mechanics loaded the chairs
we walked through a few of the
houses and found everything imagin-
able. 1t was a most depressing
sight, for one could imagine these
old people getting OUT in a few
hours time, and where contentment
and happiness was-death and de-
struction followed. This little viii
lage is, as l said, just about one
fourth of a mile on the other side
of us and to think of its being in
range of the Boche guns, seems i'm
possible, for the high mountains on
our other side, hide it completely
but only last night at ten o'clock
were dropped in it, the noise
and sure enough they were after
the village. About a dozen big shells
were dropped in it and the noise
from the explosions and falling of
the walls was very plain. It's a
wierd sensation to hear these things
go whistling overhead and not
know where they are going to land
Our first job was a mean one and
it came at a bad time. While we
were watching the shells burst in
the town across the way, and won
dering if any of the soldiers
quartered there, waiting to go to
the 'front.' were killed, an Italian
captain came in our living room and
said in broken English, 1--WE would
like all the cars you can spare to
go at once to the hospital in the
town to evacuate the patients" Z"
What did / think of, as did all the
rest-but ii was an order, so out we
nd In nx, I,aIf 1,