Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1918-10-04
LMters From France.
Aug. 26, 1918.

, U Nerr,s -
,.sas Dc not Morrv when you
:set hss ssom ne, for rather
~ , r'et's u tiu1e. can now
81 ,nat there vii be more o.
81, pc, sotis, just ike this last
,ue. There have been days late
y when / did not have a spare
moment all day and at night
when | was too fatigued to write.
One night after retiring l walked
up three times with the telephone
receiver in nv hand nobody had
called, but the day had been
spent answering calls ard !
dreamed of it. We have spent a
month in a quiet sector and are
now in a back area for a period
of training. 1t seems remark a.
bly, quiet right now because the
brigade is just getting in by
marching. The staff came by
automobile. The training will
begin in a few days and work
will pick up again.
We are now in a small town,
three OF us billeted in big house
inside of big garden filled with
trees. Two old ladies own the
place and we have takeu it over
just like bunch of Hessians-
only we don't persecute any body
There is stream running
through the garden and a trout
pond. 1t is very pretty. Oul
Office is in an old paper mill
the property of the same family
The mill race is just below MY
window. The sound Of the water
suggests one of Triplett'S mills
We fiad a pretty creditable lit
tie fight, a little over a weel
ago. You may have noticed il
the paper that the American.
took a town in the Vosges. Vel
we were there and furnished tn,
artillery support for the action
1t looked very simple and wa.
quite a small problem, but in
deed it required an infinite
amount of work more than al
outsider would ever ina CINE. O
course, | was not near the thing
itself, except afterward as {
sight-seer, but by means Of tht
Telephone our headquarters ra,
the artillery.
We arose at 3 A. NJ. and wait
ed zero hover" which was 4 A
M. (all the plans was then com
Ipleted-a whole week s work o
of many men). Exactly at 4 A
NJ. a good MANY batteries broke
loose and the infantry went owe
the top. For several hours TO
US if was just like awaiting TIL,
detection returns. And then iii,
requests began to come in for al
tillery support. Every time TIL
| Boche fired a gun, we heard 0
it and we were expected to pre-
vent it. This we tried to dc
Can You imagine one searching
| for infor ma tion as to where Ger
mans were known to be and the
telephoning some battalion com
rnander to fire at them. For fou
days our infantry was harasse,
with high explosives and ga
shells. Then we deliberatel
lplanned to fire on German in
fantry every time his artiller,
opened on ours. 1t worked pref
lty we'll. We gave them gas one
too. They are very effective.
Some things are very humor
Gus. The other day, a battery
commander saw some German.
working in a field with an OF
cart. He turned On 10 shrapnel
How they scattered |! The old
OK stood there for four hours,
until dark without any one re-
turning. The morning after we
withdrew a battery from one po-
sition, the Boche having located
its position previously fired $50
big gas shells. They were vast
ed and our soldiers enjoyed it
immensely. ! told a friend Of
some German TEN porary bar
racks which had been located.
There were kitchens where many
of them seemed to go for meals,
The next day German ARTILLERY
started to punish our infantry,
where upon we sent TWENTY-FIVE
gas shells into those barracks
1t sounds cold hlooded, but |
thoroughly enjoyed the thought
of perhaps catching some of the