Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-12-21
"BUSS. REIN WRITES
INTERESTING LETTER
HOME FROM FRANCE
Gives Details OF Experiences As Men,
Der OF Ambulance Company
On Three Fronts


Co, 304 Sanitary Train. American ex-
lpeditionary forces. France. to his faith
Ter, Mr.. Herman REIN, of West Annapo-
lis, is quite interesting and gives some
of the experiences of "Buss" since he
has teen on the '.other side:
well papa they have set aside this
day as fathers day over here so am
telling you a few things about my adj
venture, hut it's just few. | am now
in the suburbs of verdun, the place
which the Crown Prince tried so hard
to take. few months after the war
began. II has been shot up quite bit
have been here twice now. The first
time while they were Smelling the
place always, but now everything is
quiet
1T is quite place; il is really two
cities. One is under ground and the
other on top OF it,
Fifteen thousand people can live in
this place. it has stores, theatres and
most everything, all underground
This is how the French moved their
Troops during the days of Smelling.
All the houses in the town are pretty
well shot up, and / have slept in them
few nights before this war ended and
thought, If one of those things would
hit here. where would ! be- / would
hear them pass over my head as lay
on the floor thinking of mama and
you.
Il was in the big drive that started
September the oath and we sure did
some fighting. l will never forget the
first time | was under shell fire, and
the Germans sure did send them over
but was there all the time, but the
first time you don't realize the danger
have been in No Mans Land, when
you could hear a sniper or machine
gunner take shot at you, more than
once. / didn't think / would ever
make it,, as the soldier says.
I'VE fought there for five days, be-
fore being relieved, and in that time
had but little to eat, in fact you
don't feel like eating You are too
busy during other things. The Ger
mans resisted bit at first, but when
we got them on the run we kept them
going, and was on the front when
they had to stop going and quit, so l
can say l helped to start them, and
saw them when they had to quit
1T seemed funny to be on the front
and at a certain hour everything was
quiet, but didn't our artillery give
them h the last hour! Well /
guess they did If you could have seen
the place after we had taken it, you
would have thought SO, our big naval
[ 1aff n
to set small house in. / saw a Ger
imam graveyard, after we were on our
way back. that shell had hit and
dug out about half dozen bodies. L
have seen all sorts of sights, especially
after we had made an advance.
Just few days before the war
ended / slept in a German beer gar
den, near the Belleau woods. This is
the place we did some hard fighting
/ don't suppose the Germans ever
thought they would have to leave it,
the way things we're fixed up there.
II have also been on the ST. Mihiel
front, but things were rather quiet up
there, as it wasn't very important at
that time. l have been on four battle
fronts in all, so you see l have been
rather busy over here, but have seen
all of France. All along the fronts
everything is torn to pieces, trees cut
off like machine would cut grass,
trenches and barbed wire entangle-
ments everywhere and the hillside torn
to pieces by our artillery.
There was an old niger in one of
the artillery regiments here; every
time he would put big shell in the
gun, he would say Kaiser count your
men" and then pulled the string and
off would go the shell to the Hun
lines.
THE gas that the Germans sent
over is bad stuff. but you bet your life
"Buss" always had his gas mask in
an alert position, ready to put it on
in seconds notice. We can all put
them on in six seconds. so you see that
is quick work. They send the gas
over with high explosive shells so you
never can tell when it is gas or not.
I'VE have great way of travelling
over here. and that is mostly by foot,
now and then in side-door Pullman,
we would call them box cars at home,
| rode for three days straight in one
of them, when I first came to France,
! / can really say / don't want any
thing in cans when / get back to
dear old U. S. America You wouldn't
have known your son when he came
back from the front line. l hadn't
shaved or washed for week, and lost
my pack and roll, and only owned
what had on my back, and they were
mud from head to foot.
Tell mama l had cootie bath the
other day, and tell her her son had
plenty of them on him, so they sent us
all down to a delousing station with a
new suit of underwear Every soldier
that has been in the trenches are both
cred with these little pets.
We were in action two months and
that was long enough. We came over
on French transport, Luletia and it
sure was a. dirty hole 1t took just
eleven days to come across, and we