New Britain herald., 1918-01-07
THINK AMERICANS
 CANNOT BE HURT
French AWed By Bravery Of Am.
 bulanCe Drivers Under Fire


 Ives. according to letters received
 William Buell. by his parents, MT.
 Mrs IF. H. Buell. of Winthrop
 N The younger Buell. is some
 &Nfn France bringing wounded
 pm the front to field and base
 as. American drivers has dis
 sueh daring and nonchalance
 Hire that the French are amazed
 Eonder if some unseen power does
 Rrotes them from harm.
 he letter follows::
 Ear Mother and Father:
 NI haven't had time to write for
 p days, Day before yesterday l
 rked on my car-all morning and in
 e afternoon a friend of mine,
 pncardine at Carneis Sud- came
 er to see e. He speaks a lit.le
 Ngllsh, so we teach each other. He
 As a college student before the war, nd Is very well educated. We sat my car and visited for a while, then ee took paper and pencil and showed fach other the language. We studied fll afternoon. He invited me to have {1inner with his company. He is a corporal and has no men under him. We got away with five rabbits and we also had French bologna, salad. war bread, Pinard and cheese. Yes terday I met another Broncardier friend of mine who had with him the man that has charge of the carrier pigeons at eNrdun. He had a diary of the work of the pigeons which he llet me copy. It is in French and I will translate it for you when I get home. He gave me one of the cases they fasten on the pigeons legs to put the messages in. I don't think you had better count on me getting home before next spring. The way things look now it is almost impos- sible
 Laundry, we don't think of such things here. | didn't have a bath from the time I left England until last week Saturday. Some haven't had a bath for three months. Air raids are quite common but don't worry about them. It is said that the American troops are not to go in until spring, they are to train all winter. As long as I am away from the front and we are never to return to the same post at Verdun I will tell you a thing or two. No post on any front is as bad as the one at Verdun We were so close we could see the Roche and they could saw stretches of the roads over which we had to go with our blesses. We could see te Roche and they could see us, We had the shells explode be- side our cars and blow through them. I have had several men in my car killed We were under shell fire all the time, day and night. Even our camp was shelled and shot riddled nr,{ ton we had one killed and two wound ed. The concussion alone from an explosion blew the top off one of our cars A shell landed on one car and blew it to bits. You need not worry however, as we are not going back to the same post and at no other post can the Roche shell us as they did at Carneis Sud. There are many things I wish I could tell you. We have had 25 Boche planes overhead at one time and the bombs just rained down. Don't worry any more as We will never be under shell fire again. We can't get up to the front at any place except at Carneis Sud and We won't go there again.
 "A company of artillery that was at the front with us has just come in They all shook hands with us and gave us cigarettes These men worked the batteries that were stationed all along the road: they would see us every day as we rolled by. When the Boches were smelling they would beat it for the abris but we drove through it just the same and they would stick their heads out and yell to us to come in or we would get hurt. They think that we have charmed lives as we al h in an arbri. We don't wear the Red Cross on our hats any more; we have metal insignia with a spread eagle with the words Services aux armies The English driver has the Red Cross and so to distinguish us from them we have had it changed. A telegraph messa ge has just come in that there are three malades (sick men) in a camp 30 miles from here and I am going to take them to the hospital"
 Wanted to Kiss Drivers
 We had to get out at a. rn and meet a hospital train that came in with 307 blesses. We rolled until a. m. carrying them to the various hospitals. As the roads back here are fine we could make good time These blesses were the very men whom we had carried from the front to the field hospitals during the recent at tack. When they sa wus they wanted to kiss us They grabb bed our hands and hung on to our coats, and some even cried. They thanked us over and over again for getting them out of the shell fire safely. They seem to think that we bear charmed lives and when they are riding in our cars they are safe. It isn't that we bear nI, oI li1,oc hui th11Il A