The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-12-27
FATHERS DAY AMONG THE SOLDIERS
American Army and Navy Honors Dad by Setting
Aside Fathers Day." for Men to Write
Home to Dad. Letters are Arriving and Dad
is Tickled. -,
PRESS OF AMERICA PRINTS THEM

and we had just started to execute
his command when the Smelling start
ed again and with increased fury.
A piece of shrapnel got French
sergeant in the leg and it fell to my
lot to take him to the hospital al
Chalone in the Captains car. Shellina
was kept up all the time and it re,
mains pretty much of mystery to
me how l made the trip without &C
cident. 1t was about fifteen miles
to the hospital, and the sargeant''s
wound was bleeding pretty badly, SO
| had to make some speed. On the
return trip the Smelling had quoted
down and when l reached the lines
again the boys were digging in. Dur
ing the night we were called upon to
put over a machine gun barage. 1t
was some fight. Much of the time
we were engaged hand to hand with
the enemy-hard and sweet. 1t was
two days before we got that front
cleaned up.
+! Our next move was to that famous
battle ground, Chateau Thierry,
where we had a chance to partici-
pate in one of the greatest battles OF
/, the world war. To show how des-
perate the enemy had become men,
ton that there were Germans chain
ed to machine guns up in the trees.
They couldn't be trusted to stand
fast against our fire.
I have some very good souvenirs
that took from German lieuten-
ant whom two of the boys and my
self finished, together with two OF
his companions at their emplace-
ments. Our automatics sure did
speak that day.
The same day a German airplane
came and spotted our company. At
ter he had played around and rained
a bushel of machine gun bullets on
us, he went back to his own lines.
We were driven from our position
and it seemed that they had us on
the move for some time. Finally,
early the next morning, we gained
some woods from which the Ger
mans had just been driven. Talk
about dead bodies. There were plen-
ty of them there; American, French
and many Germans.
The ground was very muddy and ii
was almost impossible to advance,
but we started through on the run
and kept the Fritzies going till the
finish of the war. .'
And, Dad, if you don't think there
was any praying going on, you are
badly mistaken. | prayed as ! new
err prayed before. And am proud
of my religion, and thankful that the
hand of God brought me through.
On July Goth. in the evening, we
were giving Fritz all the machine
gun lead we could and he was ans
wering with high explosives. For
some little time no one noticed that
we were being gassed. | had gotten
a Whit or two and after that my
mask was useless; had to keep sneez-
+! ing all the time. SO got pretty
heavy dose of chlorine, and that
night, with many others of my COM
pany, was sent back to a hospital
where we were treated very well
indeed, and it was only short time
until all were back in service again
although some of us still feel the
effects of the gas.
Our main hope, cover here" is to
get some French woman to cook us
some eggs and french fried potatoes.
Maybe we will have to wait until we
get home for these things and we all
hope that that will not be long.
thought last night ! had finished
this letter but today | find | have a
little spare time so will continue it.
This morning | awoke from bad
dream. Thought | was back in the
trenches again and we were being
shelled with the biggest, German
shells. / was mighty glad to find it
was only dream, for / have memoir
les enough of that kind of life. l
remember while we were at Alsace-
Lorraine that we had to stand to from
ZOO in the evening until 4:30 in the
morning, and it was cold and dismal
and the mud and water was about
up to our knees. The reason for this
was that the Boche might try an at
tack and we had to be on the job to
stop him. After waiting for him for
some time and it was found that he
was not coming, our commander de-
cided to go after him. Three nights
and days of machine gun barage and
then at $3.50 in the morning "over
the top. It was sight that even
time will dim but little in my MEM
DRY. The big shells bursting right
out in front of us, chunks Of shrap-
mel whizzing through the air every
place. Once in while these would
get some of our boys, and this brot
the thought of how glad I was that
| was not in the old End Idaho, but
with strange bunch of lads from
the east. 1t would be much harder
to see the boys knocked off if they
were your best friends.