The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-11-15


ENs>lsttslzt- W. asa ssst.- e=sGt- Il
what NoN would cali No mans Land
m aNlWe N>e,''~~ >yNeHc &Su, tAA'
any civilization whatever but Al
soon as We get TO a place where on
mail can he censored, | viii send al
cr mime IN. You wrote that YOU weU
eetttne ready For your BOYS whei
they come home, and the way ~ look,
now h will not be lons before owet
and / Will he home to vet some rea
eats once more, II certainly so0nd'
sOoa ~ hear the fellows and IN,
Officers also around here say tina
the war viii be over some time IN,
latter Part Of the month"; and doe'
not leNN unavoidable 60 me, let u,
hNne aud pray that II may Nese,
kNNM Your letter | take u thai
tleIee had started aerNss For thl'
slAe, NJ, | have not run across any
one knew since eomins To BATTERY
4, but the ether day when We wer,
on the move 60 some new sun pesi'
ton We nassed the tSM Artillery
where all the old BATTERY e men are
and n seemed like meeting some oh,
from home 90 SEQ them asain, They
are tn the Railroad Artillery, and
wlsh was with them IA they have
their permenant hunks itxed w NM
In box cara, and IN that way they
move around nv rail all the time,
am not hoping TO be sent TO any bast
hospital during thia war; but "
should land IN No, q, I VIII AJAX TO,
Lieutenant IT, X, Hardy, Mira, David
MorEan'S hrother,tn law, You mon
toned the extremely hot weather YOU
were having, but when | was read
lng your letter | was all bundled NJ
10 keep warm, and also had TO have
my big ehauffer's mitts on To keei
my hands warm, After reading your
letter u couple of times this morning
and looking over the pictures about
n dozen times, walked along n bis
trench which ran through n part OF
No. Mans Land. where the lighting
had heen very severe on both sides
After walking along the trench fol
about two miles, crawled out on tor
to take look around, and of all the
desolate places | have seen this was
certainly the worse. There was not
n living tree within a radius of three
or four miles, and all l could see was
stumps running from three to ten feet
high, where they had been shot off
There were large shell holes all over
one adjoining the other, and there
was not bit of ground that had not
been shelled at some time or Other
during this war. Then the trenches
and barbed wire entanglements were
running in all directions, making the
scene most grllesome. In the trench
es there were many large dug outs
some nearly fifty feet deep. 1t will
not be long before | can be able to
tell you all about everything in detail
the way things are going over here
Do not worry if you do not hear from
me for long time, but trust in God
as / do. If we put our trust in Him
we will have no cause to worry and
everything will turn out for the best
My trust is in Him, and l feel that
my faith is well founded, and If il
is His will that l should meet death
| have nothing to fear.
October 4: The first chance I get
to see our chaplain, l will give him
my letters and he will send them
out for me. | am now writing this
sitting on a bunk which my bunkie
and fixed up in large trench. Our
big guns around here make so much
noise and jar the ground so that my
pen jumps on the paper, making ii
hard to write. We do not mind our
guns though as long as they are send
ing the shells toward Germany, but ii
Is those shells coming from Germany
that we have to look out for, We
have been in three big drives thus
far. and each one of them brings us
closer to the German border, We
were in that drive on the st, Mihiel
sector. which I guess you have read
about, Upon arriving at our new
positions the other night the German
shells were bursting quite close to
US, some within a hundred yards, so
] decided not to sleep In my truck as
! have been doing most of the time,
but my bunkie and | fixed UP a good
bunking place down In trench, We
laid some boards on the bottom,
eresswise of the trench, found some
hay which we placed over the beards,
then piece of canvas over the hay
and on ton at that five blankets, two
under and three over Va, u made
q dandy bunk, and slept real warm
all night, We were awakened once
by a Gas alarm at 800 a, m, There
are certainly seme aefepiahes fiyihg
around and over Va continuously all
day Iona, and this morning | saw
seven German planes shet down,
Some Of these German aviatefs are
real sports and daring enough TO ny
within range OF eur machine and
anti. aircraft guns, but they have a
pretty slim chance and very few Of
them get back to their lines, Five
came over at one time this morning
and only one OF them got back safe.
W one flew 40 close over my head
or not but someone did as had thesat.