The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1918-10-24
VIM. BEECHER OF
l03D. INF FANTRY
WRITES LETTER
Telling of Interesting Exper-
fences in Line of Duty
GERMANS GLAD TO YIELD
Blame the Kaiser for Starting the
War and Know That They VIII Be
Well Treated by Americans.

Below are extracts from a letter
received Saturday by Mrs. Beecher OF
Pleasant street from her son, William
Beecher, of the 1854 u. s. infantry
Private Beecher has been with the
American army in France year. He
has gone over the top a number Of
times and had recently returned 10
his regiment after an absence Of
about five months. Early last spring
he underwent an operation at one OF
the base hospitals and had then been
sent to a rest camp TO recuperate.
The following tells something of
the recent fighting of the Americans
and his experiences on the st. Mihiel
salient.
Somewhere in France,
Sept %, 1918.
My dearest mother: II have been
back with the company now almost
three weeks, and it seems good to
see the old boys again, although there
are quite few new faces.
| intended TO write a few days ago
but writing paper has been very
scarce around here.
A few days ago | received a large
bunch of back mail, April, May and
June-and spent quite few happy
hours reading it. Hadn't had but a
few letters all these months was at
the rest camp.
Just think, | have been away from
the States a year today. We left New
York Tuesday, September 20, 1917.
All the Bennington boys are feeling
and looking fine As you know, Ray
Church is not dead. have seen
him a number of times.
We are now camped in large
woods. Shells are continually going
over our heads. Most Of them are
from our own artillery, shooting q
few kisses over to the Boche, but
now and then Fritz gets little
peeyed and return a few OF the greet
ings.
Thursday mornzAg, September 10
at o'clock, we went over the top
We moved into the firing trench the
night before. And how it did rain,
Ii seems as though II is all it does in
sunny France" is rain. For seven
hours beginning at one o'clock in the
morning, our artillery put over a
tremendous barrage on the Germans;
on their barbed Wire entanglements
their trenches, dugouts, communica
ton lines, supply depOts. railroads
and roads, and ammunition dumps. Al
eight o'clock our barrage was lifted a
little and we went over Then our
artillery started again 1t was pretty
rough going over No Mans Land. ap
HILL down hill, through masses OF
barbed wire, and ON trenches 1t had
stopped raining by that time and il
locked as though the sun might shine
/ We met very little opposition A
/ few machine guns plugged away at us
but their aim was very poor In fact
one German machine gunner had his
machine pointed straight upward and
was shooting in the air, because he
( wanted to be taken prisoner Wher
Z We arrived at the German front line
trench you ought 10 have seen thS
surprised look on their faces There
were many Austrians there. too Our
artillery had simply scared them tC
death They surrendered by the hun
dreds You should have seen then
throw up their hands and throw thei
helmets off and with that scared lool
on their faces. The Germans ant
AustIians are afraid of the Yanks
anyway. Then the Boche retreated
and our boys had hard work to iint
them, so fast did the Germans run
and they did run peilmell!
brought a bunch of prisoners Il
the rear In the bunch was a captain
Iand a lieutenant. couple Of Gey
mans asked me it we we're English
men. but / told him. No stree, w
arc Americans. and there are lot
im0rc Of us over here. "a coup NOR
Gu. led tho Kaiser ald the Crow
pr,aco right ana lei, They SAID tha
the Kaiser had started the war wit
six sons and still has six sons. The
also said that four years were to-
much and they we're nightly glad Z
be out of IT, They We're happ
bunch of prisoners; they laughed an
I ioked with each other all the way {
/. The rear They knew they were saf
and in good hands
In the town where ! brought IN
. prisoners, met many of the Benninl
ton hoys. John Toomoy Paul Jewet
, Harry Remington, Johnny McCmn'
Corwin and Hawley Elwell. Sill
t. Welch. Jelly LaCross Red White an
: had quite a talk with them. Had SUI
3 lper with roOmey who works in Ia
hcook shack. had pancakes. II wa
{ pretty dark by this time and kne'
I that II would he very hard to find th
Z compang. travelling through IN
= woods IN the dark so ] remained wit
/ Johnny over night. Early the nel
!. morning started out to find the con
y pany and job it was, too. Our boy
e were advancing so fast that it wa
very hard to find where they were.
v In their hasty retreat the German
r. set Gre TO several towns and burne
G large quantities of food, but we ca
: tured far more than they destroyer
{ and we "livcd on" the Germans fC
O quite a few days. ON my way back
the company. | went into quite a fe
n German dugouts and helped myse