The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1918-08-15
= $ s y y y y y = 4.
SOLDIER BOY LETTERS.
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Verne Negley Writes From France.


ten by Verne Negley, who was born
sister, Mrs. j. w. Mclaughlin, form
erly of Decatur, now residing at
Cedar Falls. Verne was one Of the
first to volunteer when war was de-
clared and has been in France
American E. F., France, July II,
1918.
Dear Folks: Will answer your
letter of May %, which | received
some time ago. At the time it ar
rived we were on on the me move We land ana
any mail or l would have written
much sooner. | think we have COW
cred all the country in the last three
weeks Seeing France from a
Truck" That is ii your eyes are
good enough to see through the
dust. The roads here are all rock
and very dusty and a train of As or
SO trucks makes an awful fog. l
have always been lucky in catching
the rear end too. You can imagine
how it was if you remember when
we followed Jim on the trip to La
moni. This was much worse: Fart
sleep on box of hand grenades
with a truck running from Is to 20
miles per hour is no snap. Some
times you feel as though you could
sleep under most any conditions. and
an most m aay B}ffs but on thiFf tHis is is
causing us lots of grief at times
and at other times plenty of fun.
This has never been SO much trouble
for me that l ever regretted the trip
anyway.
but for how long we never know.
That all depends on how the Boche'
feel about it. Should they take
notion to drop few shells or bombs
over this way we would of course
have to make ourselves scarce as
possible. The country here is much
better than where we, were before
big guns and aeroplanes are thick
are scattered all over the country
Some only large enough for two men
an dsome look large enough for a
whole division. The big railroad
guns are great pieces Of machinery.
Of us, the barrel of which measured
81 feet long and used shell meas
uring ~ * inches and weighing 295
pounds. There are many much
larger than that but even that is
"some gun They claim it car
Tied a distance OF "a miles. The
to the trenches. They surely are
tearing up and demolishing lots of
good land. But l guess it must be
done. In the zone of artillery fire
you can not find a living tree, shrub
or spear of grass. All the small
vegetation has been killed from
the continuous use of gas and the
larger stuff such as trees being torn
down almost to the ground by heavy
artillery. The ground is torn up
till it's almost impossible. The
shell craters being anywhere from
one to five feet deep and very THICK.
! have only been under shell fire
that for a while. That time the
Boche were dropping 9 inch shells
on city where we We're hauling
supplies and loading in railroad
yards. | saw one of these shells
strike a private home and scattered
stone and cement almost over the
whole block. Just, before we made
village a short distance back OF the
lines. Here was also an ammuni-
ton dump there which we were
hauling from and they located it
someway and on several occasions
big plane would sweep, over the
morning just about 6 o'clock a, plane
came over and some of the bombs
came close enough that the pieces
dropped on the roof Of our billet.
was not long in getting out
of bed and did not stop to argue
with anyone about It either. l JUST
cannot remember when l ever made
such record move. Especially
when it came to getting out, of bed.
I have seen some exciting air fights
around the same village. Saw two
Boche machines brought down
there. One burst into flames as it
was falling and the pilot was burn,
the machine caught fire. There was
not much left of the plane The
other one which fell or rather came
down was run down by a French
man after he had shot holes through
the engine with his machine gun;
Both men were taken prisoners and
later we heard they were the two
the famous American flyer, Major
LIfberly. It's great sport to watch
tho antiair craft guns plugging
away at plane: You can see Just
a small spot sailing round in the
air with the shells 81 m bur bursting and nd
course it's hard to tell just how
close they are getting.
I wish l had the time and the
censor would let me tell you all we
see and where we see it, but they
won't. 1t would be much more in
teresting to you Pm sure. Well !
must close and go to work. Don't
forget I'm always anxious to hear
from you and will expect more than
Just answers to my letters for I'm
sure you can find much more time
for letters than I can. l would sure
appreciate any of the papers you can
send. Reading matter is not very
easy to get hold of besides ! would
like to see what is going on around
Decatur City. Hoping to hear from
you often, am your brother,
Verne A. Negley,
Truck Co. D. 117th ANN Train,
: American Expeditionary Forces.
! As,
/. - July II, 1918.
Will continue the letter which |
wrote you a few days ago. | failed
to finish it on account Of an unex.
pected move. Nevertheless / sent
YOU what l had written.
40 roof uook business has