New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-05-08
RUNNING GAUNTLET
OF GERMAN Shells
Longe SaViCSki Writes Of AdVen-
lures As DiSpatCh-Bearer at Front


as is shown in a letter from Longe
Savicski, a, member of Company Z,
1920 regiment, to a local friend.
Ploughing through mud and lodging
"Minnies'' is not conducive to cheer
full spirits but it can be seen by
Savicski's lines, which breath opti1n-
ism, that it requires more than Ger
man shells to dampen his ardor.
The letter describing his experiences
under fire was written on March 20
and another letter describing life in
"cave" was written on April 16. They
are as follows:
Somewhere in France,
March 20, 1913
Received your most welcome letter
of March 3rd and was ever SO glad
to hear from you. l suppose you have
read in the papers by this time that
we've been in the trenches. We sure
did have some experience which III
never forget. Of course, | have not
been in the trenches with the COM
pany as I said in my last letter that
was dispatch courier receiv
ing and delivering messages being at
tached to Regm entail Headquarters.
l had to make frequent runs to the
trenches with messages. One day
while ] was going with a message
came near losing my life. Istarted
out with a message for the trenches
and had about 200 yards to go before
l reached a municating trench to
lead me up to the lines when all of a
sudden / heard q, shell coming and
knew it was coming towards me as [
could tell by the--Whiz it made in the
air, so the first shell hole [ saw l
fell into. / no more than fell in the
hole when the she'll burst about fifty
yards in front of me and shrapnel
fell on all sides of me. Well believe
me, 1 was pretty shaky for minute.
| did not mind it after a while and L
took out a cigarette and smoked to
kind of calm myself down and went
along with my message. I have been
pretty lucky during our stay In the
trenches. There was another day that
1 just escaped. 1t was a nice sunny
day and I thought I would go up on
the hill and while there 7 happened to
hear a queer sound and I looked up in
the sky and there I noticed an air
battle going on. And as l stood
witnessing the air battle and heard
the machine guns pop away at each
other T heard two or three bullets
from the planes whiz by me but L
didn't mind that. They were having
it hot and heavy over my head and
it was SO interesting that I wanted 20
see the finish and see which side was
victorious but it wasn't very long be-
fore | ehanged my mind for as | was
leaning UP against tree one of the
bullets struck about a foot above my
head SO then 1 thought it was time. to
move as that Mas no place for me.
They fought all afternoon but I did
41,o ich IJlolr cd fHf
shelter but there were few planes
brought down that afternoon and a
few balloons Whenever We had
nice sunny day which we had almost
always while in the. trenches there
would be an air battle. / have seen a
number of them and do love to wit
ness them as they are very interest
ing. We've even seen action as you
have read in the papers at home by
this time. But we sure did have It
hot and heavy one night which [
think the boys will never forget. Talk
about your Fourth of July celebration,
it was nothing compared to that
| night Although I was not in the
trenches that night of the attack l
witnessed the artillery fire, and I
wish I could tell you more about it
but as you understand this letter has
to be censored. Some day, if ever
get back, which 7 hope I will, I'll tell
| you all about it.
! well we're in the rest camp at
present in a little village and we like
| it very much but I'm afraid our rest
| is going to be pretty short.
"Speaking of the Red Cross things,
/ we have not received thing from
! the Red Cross during the time We
! have been in France. That is no
one in our company received any
| thing, socks, sweaters, or anything
| like that. The last time we received
7 anything from the Red Cross was in
! New Haven just before we left for
{ France We received q sweater,
/ pair of socks, one helmet, one pair
! wrstlets, one comb, trench mirror
/ and a tooth brush also WOODEN
scarf. which we appreciated very
| much But since then we have re-
ccived nothing at all from the Red
| Cross and T am positively sure Of it.
/ For my part I think the sleeveless
I sweaters are the best. Speaking Of
! handknitted socks they are very good
as they last quite a while. | was
thinking that if the Red Cross was
i going to send over any more sweat
ers for the boys for next winter they
ought to ship them from the states
about August as by that time after
i arriving in France and being dis
tributed it will be cold weather. But
! now we won't need sweaters as the
weather has been pretty warm. [
think the boys would prefer receiving
! the same thing as they received in
| New Haven. 7 think that the Red
! Cross are doing a very good work.
/ We understand that they can't take
care of everybody at the same time
! but that is expected.