Daily Kennebec journal., 1918-07-25
OUR BOYS
OUR CouN1RY'S SERVICE


Gently from Private Frank E. Lo"''iei'
formerly OF Calais. who IS with 70. =
10Sd L. S. Infantry. now in the tnlc
of the fray in France. The letter tens
in a most graphic way OF the sp!ehuio
morale of our brave soldiers ana the
important part they are taking IN tnis
great struggle for democracy
Friend Roy:-Your letter received ana
was glad to hear from you. ! received
a letter from Tom Allen and he IS O.
K. but the Boches drop few shells
around him quite often.
Well, Roy. will try and give you few
details Of our engagement with tne
Boche Sunday morning. June 18th. we
were in a sector just opposite one Of the
Boches best positions, in such sector
that the Boche artillery when opened
up would have direct fire on our nrst
line trenches and support. At "A. NJ.
they opened fire on US. l thought they
were going to level the small village on
SO it would be fat, but they succeeded
in only leveling out one end. OF course
there were no civilians in the village
just US soldiers.
The artillery sent over is what g
called a pox barrage, which cut OF our
lines of escape and no support could get
to u.s. Shortly after the barrage started
the Boche came over the top, bunch
of shock troops with the intention Of
capturing the town and either killing
rs or taking rs for prisoners. Well
they got up to our barbed wire entangle-
ments and our men opened fire; down
went the Boches like moving hay. Our
men fought like lions and we came out
on top. The barrage lasted seven hours
from 3 A. NJ. to 10 A. NJ. that morning
When it lifted we began to see how
we had come out in the fight. We found
that we had captured three Boche ma
chine guns. three liquid fire machines
and we don't know for sure just how
many prisoners. but believe me we got
them and got them good.
You probaly have read OF their liquid
fire machines that they are using, They
are strapped to their backs with a tube
about five feet long and fuse on the
end, which when touched lightly
catches fire. There is a little handle on
lile SIue SifIitdI W pump
works up and down and 1t sprays the
contents of the machine. Had the Boche
got near enough to put these to a good
use they probably would have done a
little more damage, but we were wise
to that and popped them off first. All
the rest of that day and for two days
afterward they carried dead and wound
aT porhnc of NJ "a
Boches must have outnumbered us at
least 10 to one and the casualties out
numbered us Is to one We lost but a
few men alongside of them.
It was in this bomba rdment that FreA
Sherman was killed. He was in a dug
out asleep | imagine just coming off
guard and big shell hit the dug out an1
tield way His name was Earl l.. Sew
erance. Fred was the only fellow from,
home killed. All l can say for the
Boche is that they are yellow bunch
of animals and if it was not for their
artillery the war would not last mu IN
longer at the rate they are going now.
for everywhere along the front they are
meeting with failure and that means
slaughter over here At present we are
stationed in d small town just in the
vicinity. We expect to have a long
hoped for rest soon. Corporal Jerrold
McGarrgle, Private Joe Murphy and
myself are all in good health Give our
regards 20 the boys
Pvt Frank E. Lowther.
Co I, 1880 Inf, A. E. F.
Via New York