Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-24
FromOver There
Letters Of interest from Americas
soldiers who are with the allied
force in France.
Every Even ng will be glad TO receive
and print lcttcrsof this character.

Mr. and Mrs Howard l.. Pyle Of l29
West Seventeenth street have received
a very interesting letter from their nephew:
Charles W. Pyle, who rs over there
in Battery ID. of the 15Oth Field Artillery.
Young PYLE has host of friends IN this
CITY He writes with a. snap and vigor
which shows he is taking the keenest
kind of interest in what he is dong, knows
thoroughly the sort of spirit which anmates
himself and his battery-mates, and is
making another of that splendid type
| of soldier the Allies have come TO recog-
| nize in our troops-and the German TO
| fear This is what he says:
"Old Uncle Sam may be new ut the
war game all right and true, but believe
me. these bows he has over here to tell
the boche what is right and what is wrong
| are sure making a name for themselves
I'VE are going into the battle just like
old vets al the game Not casting
| any the division TO which the unit ! am
a member belongs can hold back and
defeat not less than FIVE divisions of the
German army. The samples we have
seen of the Germans are surely very poor
at fighting or else they are all scared TO
| death at the Americans.
II have a very close friend here IN one
| of the infantry units and he has told me
some very good things about his trips
over the top. On patrol of his, with
| eighteen men, a boche patrol of forty-two
men was encountered. These eighteen
| had five machine guns and eight auto
| matte rifles Out OF the forty-two Ger
mans they killed twelve, wounded eigh-
| teen and captured five. This Is pretty
| good He also states that the Germans
| gave up when cornered rather than hight
I'VE are back from the front now after
| being in position for 100 days. In this
| time we lost no one Our gun position
was shellcd several times, or rather shelled
| at At our first position all the boche
could do was blow the top of hill IN
| front of us, and at one other position they
tore down several trees. Poor shots.
we did better than that. On our
! first offensive we tore out an ammunition
| dump, a supply team, battery ana a
! town Our second time We tore out
a wood where they were putting IN big
| gun. a town where troops were staying,
| several batteries and darned If | know
! what all. We made 1t hot for them any
| way
we got traces of gas several times
| but not serious onces. II sure makes one
| sore 10 be reused at a. m. by a gas
| alarm and 10 put Oh ono OF these damn
F, able masks. They arc 50 nlcc and com
| Portable they remind one Of new palr
| If tight shoes only more so.
| The towns here have been the victims OF
very accurate artillery hre. Some are
absolutely all shot to pieces while Others
/ arc not hurt 80 badly No matter how
| badly torn are some Of the towns YOU
1 always find FreEchwoman gong about
! her business Of making a garden. Any
available piece OF land. no matter how
| small is a garden. The fields are planted
| IN different things. A field OF twenty-five
acres is rot planted sohd as Il IS IN the
/ States. One strip say fifty feet wide
and the length of the field will have rye,
oats or wheat, depending on the around,
while another small patch will have some
garden truck and still another patch
something else.
The material all is Covcrnment-owned
and the people raise on percentage Al
| stuff raised is the best that can be planted
on that certain piece OF ground,