The Glenwood post., 1918-12-28
INTERESTING LET.
TER FROM FRANCE
Vivid Description Of American
. Fighting on verdun Front
and Other Sectors
CAMOUFLAGE TACTICS

Mr.. and Mrs. l.. L. Cramp are in re
ceipt of the following very interesting
letter from their son, Clarence Dewitt,
who enlisted from California with the
Camouflage section and has been 70,
several months with the fighting forces
in France:
November "a, 1918
Dear Daddy:
Today is Fathers day, so no more
fitting time to answer your letter, and
as the censorship is partially raised 1
may mention a few names of places I
have been for l am sure you and mother
have been anxious to know. The war
is over now and we may write more
freely.
We landed at Bordeaux May IL, after
an uneventful voyage, but pleasant so
far as weather and being free from sea
sickness was concerned. We remained
in rest camp there for three days,
then proceeded by box cars without
having seen but little of Bordeaux, to
Dejin where our headquarters are 10
Gated and where we have factory for
the manufacture of camouflage mate
rial. Dejin / saw but little as within
about five days, five other boys and
myself were on a detail to go to the
front in the Toul sector opposite Metz
We were billeted at Armesville and
each cf us were attached to different
battery surrounding the town. / got
my first experience with Batteries A
and B of the 32 Coast Artillery corps.
They have the 1856 long rifles, with
range of about IA miles, ushing inch
shells. They We're attached to the 26th
division. We were under shell fire con.
tinually principally in the town where
we were billeted, and l remember IL
straight nights that we wore our gas
masks from one to three hours each
night. On one occasion we moved one
of our guns out to a new position on
cross road which was being shelled con-
tinually. The position was under di
rect observation from Fritz's sausages
We could see three of their balloons mp
at one time from the location 50 our
position had to be made at night We
worked the wi.sle nlgL, getting the gun
'anouflaged and 'I,ee nours of The
carly morning. We were compelled to
wear our gas mack. while continu.ag
Ncik AS we wee ii heavy cloud OF
gas. l got slightly gassed on this oc-
casion, but for lna,ely got treatment
Immediately as soon as our WORK was
cone. The following day Fritz spotted
our position just as soon as we began
to fire, the fifth shot they fired hit the
trail of our gun. l began to have re-
spect for their artillery, but good 70.
tune was cetainly with US for as mar
velous as it may seem the shell on ex-
ploding did not scratch man and sew
eral men were actually in the pit at the
time. The Boche opened up all along
the line that day. ] was trying to get
little sleep in the afternoon when
they opened up on our billets. / was
so sound asleep l did not waken until
shell hit our place and knocked the
plaster on the ceiling down on me. I
wasn't long then hunting dugont
which was across the road from Qnr
place. A number of shells exploded,
killing several, while was on my way.
1t got so hot we had to haul out and
go back to billets about three miles far
ther back. We were in the Toul sector
about three weeks, then moved with
the 26th division to Chateau Thierry to
relieve the End division and 9Th Ma
rines. We were there during our big
drive, and remained long after the 26th
division was relieved. 1t was some
scrap. We got our guns into position
almost hub to hub, and Fritz never let
up at any time. They shelled that
whole country till it was hell, but
when we opened up with our guns both
long range and 75 centimetArs, Oh.
boy! You couldn It hear yourself think.
thought you could hear the noise back
home; the ground fairly shook. The
sky was lit up for miles; you could read
newspaper six miles back Of the