The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-25

Judge William M. Walker has had some
 Interesting letters from his brother, Lieut.. Mitchell Porter Walker in which
 the well-known Birmingham man de- scribes his sensations on going over the
 top at St. Mihiel
 Lieutenant Walker is on duty with
 the Sixth United States infantry and
 has been in France since May l.
 During his first engagement he was
 slightly gassed and had to go to a hospital for five days. His letters give a vivid account of some of the hard ships the boys are enduring, as well as the glory they are winning in France.
 They read as follows
 September 5, 1918.
 My Dear Brother Although I have
 written to you once or twice since re-
 ceiving your last letter, I am going to
 write you again tonight and tell you as much as l am allowed to tell about
 what I have been doing since writing
 to you last
 ITO begin with, I have been in my first attack and have been over the top for the first time My company and another company of the regiment were selected to make the attack, for what reason I don't know. but I am glad my company was one of those selected, for it gave me my baptism under fire and an experience l very glad to have had
 THE LONG WATT
 Each platoon in our company was sent to the jumping off trench the night before the attack was to be made at about o'clock and the worst part of it was waiting from that time until the next morning for the zero hour when l we were to start. l didn't think of my | self so much, but the responsibility of | having about 50 men under me was very nerve racking. At 6 minutes before the
 zero hour our artillery opened up with | SIS, 75s, 1858, Stokes, mortars and all | the other 'heavies. and few minutes i afterwards the Huns. probably anticipat- | ing the attack. opened up with their | big ones, and 1 just can't tell you the
 sensation I had when I got my platoon l out in No Mans Land between these two | barrages. A French artillery lieutenant afterwards told me that he had never | seen more intensive or concentrated barrage since yerdun. We'll we finally | reached or objectives with a few cas- ualties. don't think there had been any Huns in the trench for a long time from the way it looked. and the only thing I could find in the dugouts t9 show that they had been occupied by the enemy were a couple of post cards tackled in the wall. Am sending you one of them, from which you will see they have been here for long time and are pretty old. We had to stay in that position for 4S hours before we were re- lieved and that part of it was as bad as getting there, if not worse The Ger mans. knowing the positions we were occupying, were sending shells over all the time shrapnel, high explosives, min nies.' gas and every other kind they had One of their gas shells hit little too near me and as a result l was slightly gassed and had to go to the hospital for five days as soon as was relieved The gas did not take effect until day or so afterwards and settled in my throat. I am feeling as well as ever now and am on duty with my com pany We have left that sector and Will go to another in few days
 1 q have tried to tell you all about the 1 experience az best I could, but it is ai- most impossible to describe 1t and the only thing further that can say is that Enlpey's book cover the Top is right
 and then some.
 75 MILES BY FRENCH After leaving the sector where that little scrap happened we had to travel by way of French motor trucks to this pince. about 75 miles, and it was the most t,resome move we have made yet: we were packed iii the trucks like sardtnes.
 It tock us about 20 hours to make the trip and when we finally reached our destin ation I was so utterly exhausted