Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1918-08-01

Also, taught them the way we
make mats out OF rope, to use while
sleeping on the steel gratings near the
entrance to stoke holes In cold wealth
er this part of the ship is more COM
Portable than the ordinary sleeping
quarters, but without a mat 1t gets too
hot.
American soldiers and sailors get
the best food In the world, but while
the French navy chow was not fancy,
Ii was clean and hearty, as they say
down East. For breakfast we had
bread and coffee and sardlnes; at noon
a boiled dinner, mostly beans, which
were old friends of mine, and of the
well-named navy variety; at four In
the afternoon, pint of vino, and at
six, supper of soup, coffee, bread and
beans.
Although the French "seventy-five"
is the best gun In the world, their ma
val guns are not as good as ours, and
their gunners are mostly older men.
But they will give q youngster a gun
rating IL he shows the stuff.
Shortly after went aboard the Cas-
sard, we received instructions to pro-
coed to Spezla, Italy, the large italian
naval base. The voyage was without
incident, but when we dropped anchor
in Spezia, the Italian port officials
Guaranteed us for fourteen days on
account Of smallpox. During this period
our food was pretty bad; In fact, the
meat became rotten. This could hard
ly have happened on an American ship,
because they are provisioned with
canned stuff and preserved meats, but
the French ships. like the Italian, de-
pend on live stock, fresh vegetables,
ETC., which they carry on board. and
we had expected to get a large supply
of such stuff at Spezia. Long before
the fourteen days were up we were
out of these things, and had to live on
anything we could get hold of-mostly
bareback, coffee and cocoa.
We loaded a cargo of airplanes for
the Italian aviators at the French fly
ing schools, and started back to Brest.
On the way back we had target prac-
tice. In fact, at most times on the
open sea, 1t was a regular part OF the
routine.
1t was during one of these practices
that the French officers wanted to
find out what the Yankee gunner knew
about gunnery. At a range OF eight
These bars, which are strips OF red
braid, are worn on the left sleeve, and
signify extra craftsmanship. I also
received two hundred and fifty francs,
or about fifty dollars In American
money, and fourteen days shore leave.
All this made me very angry, oh,
very much wrought up indeed-noti
I saw a merry life for myself on the
French rolling wave IL they felt that
way about gunnery.
spent most of my leave with my
grandmother in st. Nazaire, except for
a short trip made to a star-shell fac
tory. This factory was just about like
one / saw later somewhere In Amer
lea, only In the French works, all the
hands were women. Only the guards
were men, and they were "blesses"
(wounded).
When my leave was up and said
good-by to my grandmother, she man.
aged a smile for me, though / could
see that 1t was pretty stiff work. And
without getting soft, or anything like
that, can tell you that smile stayed
with me and 1t did me more good than
you would believe, because 1t gave me
something good to think about when /
was up against the real thing.
I hope lot of you people who read
this book are women, because I have
had 1t in mind for some time to tell all
the women I could a little thing they
can do that Will help lot. am not
trying to be fancy about IL, and hope
you will take 1t from me the way
mean 1t. ---..---... 49,