Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1918-09-26
Langdon Fighter
Tells About War
Graphic Story of Fighting In
Trench and Patrol Duty
No Mans Land
France, August 10, 1918.


tors because l do not believe in doing
that, but I am merely going to let
you know about my experiences in
this mans army and then you can
judge for yourself whether l will
need that good long rest at Cass
Lake. All want to do for thres
months is just sleep and sleep and
eat.-I mean after the war. .s
To begin with we only stayed in
Camp Mills four days and i was glad
of it because it rained all the time
we were there and the tents were
full of water. We sailed from New
York harbor on a beautiful morning
on ship named Messanible, which
was later sunk by the Germans on
her return trip. The weather was
medium while we were crossing.
Some days it would be beautiful and
then again it would rather rough.
A lot of the boys hal to keep their
hob nailed boots on or they would
have lost them too, but l was not
sick day and some of the fellow g
sure envied my ability to keep a
meal down.
We landed in Liverpool, England,
one fine morning and marched across
the city to a railroad station, then
went across England to rest camp
where we stayed two days. England
is beautiful country, just like big
park. We were lucky to land at just
the right time of the year, when
everything is green. We left the
rest camp and then went on to South.
ampton and then across the Channel
and landed in LIE H avre, France on
4 Sunday morning. 1t was a ter
rible hot day and we had to march
five miles with full packs before we
arrived at another camp. We no
sooner got our packs off and were
preparing to snatch a title sleep
when the order came to fall in. We
fell in with much swearing and
grumblipg and were marched another
four miles to Gas Chambers, where
we were equipped and given instruc.
tions in the different German gas at
tacks, etc. We left that camp in one
day and embarked on board train of
cattle cars. These cars are about one
fourth the size of American box cars
and you can imagine how comfort.
able we were with 38 men packed in
there. There was not room to rest
in any way, and right then and there
I started to get quite peeved at the
Germans. We only rode one dav and
night that trip and unloaded at a
town back of the British Iiaes on the
Somme. There l was transferred to
Company M, and l consider myself
lucky to have landed with such a fine
bunch of fellows.
Now our work started in earnest.
Most of the boys in the company
have been in the service from one to
sixteen years, and there we're about
fifteen of us new boy, who had to get
one years training in one month. OF
course the whole com pany had to
learn the British method of fighting,
because we were in reserve behind
them during the big German drive on
Amiens. 1t was there that ! used
the British stationery. l was billet
ed in barn and have been living in
them ever since, some of them are
fairly good places to sleep in and
again you hit dirty old bole that
would have made me commit suicide
year ago if I had had to sleep in
it but fellow gets used to anything.
We put in nearly month of inten-
sive training there. and it sure hard.
ened me. We drilled and hiked and
had bayone work, also bombing and
rifle practice, signaling and gas drills
from daylight to dark. We had night
problems and hikes until ! did not
care whether lived or died. But all
things must end and one day the order
came to roll our packs and prepare to
leave. We left in the morning un-
der full seventy pound packs and
hiked fifty.six miles in two days over
hard roads and up hills. Incidentally
we broke all hiking records made in
France to date. do not know yet
how we made it. NV feet were raw
and my socks soaked with blood. but
never dropped out once and that is
more than some of the old "vets"
could say. We finally came to a
good sized town and there met our
old friends, the cattle cara again.
This time we rode long time and
went around the edge Of Paris. Twas
hoping we would stop at "Gay Pa