Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1918-05-09
II, JEFFREY WRITES OF
EXPERIENCES IN FRONT LINE
Experiences of Co. E. Told in Letter to His Wllston
Friends. Steel Helmet Dented by She'll Saw Paris
Sheled by Big Gun

was not surprised when we lett the
station at 10 A. NJ. for where we were
to change for----catching fast
train for our destination. have
never seen one Of these fast trains
tho l believe they have them, OF
course, I have only been here a short
period, some, three months, and you
can't expect to see everything at once.
So we arrived at---in, time to
hear that the fast train had depart
ed. We made arrangements for din
ner as we were to have one hour
there, catch another train TO-
then get another train t oour destina-
ton. began to see that this was go
ing to be a long trip in spite of the
fact that from our original starting
place to our destination, was only
eighty miles.
We came back from dinner in ex-
actly SO minutes and was told that
the train for some reason or other
had departed minutes ahead OF
schedule. Right here, for period of
few minutes, really enjoyed the
trip for there we were in nice city,
lots of wine, women and song and no
train till the next day. Our baggage
in the mean time had gone with the
preceding train but this did not both
er me in the least for if there is one
thing that you can do in this war it
is lose your baggage. l know man
who lost his bedding roll carrying it
from. the depot to a truck and did not
find it for two months, so we were
quite happy until man came run
ming and told US that they were hold
ing freight train for US and to hur-
ry. I told him to never mind and let
| the train 20 and it would be perfectly
all right but he started to appeal to
the Officer in charge so we loaded on,
| arriving at at--just Is minutes
behind the fast train where we were
told that we would wait until the fol-
lowing afternoon for our train to our
destination which we did arriving just
"a hours late of scheduled time on an
p, 80 mile trip. We were escorted to the
Commanders Office by a French Cap
tain and was most cordially receiv-
ed. Had dinner with him and was
given every attention. The following
morning we were taken to a major
commanding Bat. on the front line.
The Major in turn sent each of US to
a Captain on the front line and each
captain was instructed to see that we
received every attention and that we
should be shown everything of inter-
est and all questions answered. l
want to say right here that the off,
GERS met from the Colonel down to
the youngest Lieutenant Impressed
me very much. They were men whom
you felt knew their business and were
clear-eyed, intelligent men.
think the first thing that was
told US was that we were unfortunate
in having been sent to so quiet sec
tor, that there was positively moth
ing doing in this sector, troops were
sent here to rest. l thought to N.Y.
self this Duty wasn't going to be 80
bad after all. A little later one of
our fellows who could understand
French caught that the village we
were in had been shelled the evening
| before, (the evening we should have
arrived) and that four men and one
Officer had been killed or wounded:
On being questioned the guide. a
Lieutenant who spoke English, in
formed us that it was so but that it
was nothing, that in this sector moth
ing really happened.
Before leaving the Majors office
we were supplied with a gas mask
and helmet (tin hat). / considered
this a useless precaution as nothing
really happened in this quiet sector
but didn't want to refuse so took
them along: ! spent my first two
days with the Major and was given
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