Estancia news-herald. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1912-19??, 1918-12-26
SOLDIER LETTER
From Ben Daugherty to his father,
j. L. Daugherty:
Colobia, La Belle France,
November "a, 1918.

wen CHiS is Cne uay SET dSlue Dy
the act of the censorship which has
lifted today and they have asked all
the boys to write a letter to their
Dad or some other comrades Dad
We can write where we have been,
what we have done and where we are
now. In fact tell all that we wish.
have'lot much really to tell, for all
the service that l have rendered has
been to transport supplies up to the
front, and have never been in what
we would call danger compared to
what really takes place. The camp
or rather town that I named above is
where l am stationed and it is the
main supply depot for all the Aero
plane Squadrons and also main motor
truck supply depot. The Germans
have bombed it by aeroplane but have
never done any serious damage ex-
cept scare us out of years growth,
when one of the Boches and some
times there are more, and again there
are up to as many as five or six of
them at one time. Well they get so
high up in the air that they shut off
their motors and sail, or what we call
gliding, and when they come over so
silent we never hear him until he has
split one or more bombs. The raids
are mostly at night. When he has
dropped his bomb there will be from
four to five searchlights shot up in
the skies to hunt for him, then the
anti-aircraft guns get busy and it is a
hot time for Mr.. Boche, and three
times out of five they get him. Well,
these night raids make us get busy
hunting for trench or dugout to
keep from being hit with shrapnel.
Well, will relate some of my trav-
els and something of what have seen
and of my trip across the ocean. l
left Camp Johnston, Florida, about
the last of September and from there
we were sent to Camp Merit, New
Jersey, where we stayed about twen-
ty-four hours. While there we re-
ceived our overseas equipment.
From there we went to Hoboken and
boarded the Corona, an English yes
sci bound for France. We had fine
weather for the trip across and
never had the experience of being
sea-sick, but from what the boys tell
me that were sick, was lucky. On
the 18th of October we landed in
Brest, where we stayed for few
days. From there we travelled on the
train for about four days, stopping at
town for a day. / have forgotten
the name just now. We were all sent
to Columbia La Belle, nice little
village and one of the largest supply
camps over here. Here we were put
on trucks and / have been hauling
ever since. And being on truck
have seen most of France and it GER
tainiy is a beautiful country, and as
for scenery it has California beat
mile Of course up on the front
where most of the fighting has been
the country is nothing but shell holes
and the villages are all in ruins. But
now since the war is over the French
people are building back and moving
back to their former homes. Every
day pass them with their wagons
loaded with their household furniture
and supplies going up to where the
front was.
This country has some of the best
building material in it ever saw In
the way of stone. Almost every
house is built of stone and some of
them are very pretty. The roads are
the best l ever saw. They are made
out of crushed rock and pressed down
with a steam roller. They are all
made this way and the country is
nothing but a net work of roads,
Well, they have to be this way to
stand the traffic that passes over
them. Everything Imaginable goes
over them from push cart up to one
of the fighting tanks you hear SO
much about. Wood is very scarce,
for all the forests have been planted
Now just think how pretty one OF
these hills looks all covered in pine
trees and growing in rows over the
top. What ground that is not in cul
tivation is in forest. Farming here
is done on small scale and reminds
!, me of good sized garden. The malr
crops are sugar beet and wheat, an'
both do we'll And Dad, would llk'
to pick out about four Of the horse
they raise over here and take then
tback to New Mexico and put then
up beside the Mexican sage-tails the,
have out there. There are sure som
dandies here and the farmers TAX
GOOD care of them, too, for all l hav
seen are as fat and slick as seals.
also have seen them threshing whea
and rye. When it is harvested it
nut in the barns and they roll tn
thresher in the barn. In this wa
= thew save all the straw and use 1t