The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-10-21
WILLI4MSTOWN
John L. Martin, Wounded in Action,
Writes of Himself and the Enemy.

| John l.. Martin, wounded III ACTION
Writes of Himself and the Enemy.
Mr. and Mrs. George f. Martin of VIII
Jamestown have received several letters
! from their son, John L. Martin of l04th
| infantry, 26th division, A. Il. H., one dat
ed Aug 25 advising them that he had so
far recovered from his wounds as to be
back with his company on the firing line
and expressing pleasure at being back,
although he thinks it was worth all the
suffering to 20 back to the base and see
all the pretty nurses. Mr.. and Mrs. Mar
/ tin have also received word of the safe
arrival overseas of another son, Corporal
\ Harrison B. Martin of the 57th Pioneer
J infantry.
/ In letter dated Sept, 10 John Martin
writes his parents as follows:
| Il received your letters dated Is and
10 0. X / am glad to hear all are well.
/ am feeling fine at present. We are
having things easy at present, not FAR
/ from the lines, but there is no shell FIRE,
J so we can at least get nights sleep, |
am glad therei are no shells, as | don't
! feel quite at home now, after getting hit
once My head is little tender, but
guess it will be all right in time. There
! is a scar three or four inches long, but it
doesn't show, as my hair covers it, When
am around where there is loud noise,
| it makes my head ache. When ! was
operated on they took out a piece Of
bone, sterilized it and put it back. 1t
isn't quite healed yet, but don't worry.
| am not thinking of what | am coming
to, | am thinking more of what you are
doing at home.
"lf the people back home viii Keep us
well supplied with what we need we are
sure of doing the rest. | am glad Harri-
son had a chance to come home before he
left. Hope | can find him when he gets
over here. Ii is hard to find anyone
know even in our own regiment, so If /
run across him it will be by chance.
am going TO try and get a German Off
GERS helmet to send you. They are fine
souvenirs, but hard TO get. They say
when the drive started the officers all
went to the rear and left the n c. D,'s
to take charge of the men, so you can see
what kind Of an army they have. They
sure play safe, as they have got dugouts
with 80 or 40 feet of stone and cement ON
top of them. We call them dugout rats
Most of the prisoners taken were clothed
well and look as though they had plenty
to eat, such as it Is Their bread is very
dark, almost black, and tastes like sour
buttermilk and the men smell just the
same. They say they are fed good, but
the pepole back home are starving
'They have very little infantry, but
have plenty of machine guns When
they retreat, they leave rear guard of
machine gun nests to put up resistance
enough to give the rest time to get out
of the way, Most of them give them
selves up without any trouble if they
have chance to. When they use expo-
sives and dun dun bullets on us it is
hard TO take prisoners. The men on the
machine guns will fire until the last min
ute and then put up their hands. I'm off
that prison stuff now. II costs too much
to feed them.
"Well, don't worry about me. I will
try and write once or twice a week il
possible. | know 1t will worry you TO
have Harrison and me both over here,
but trust that we will both return soon.
"John."