Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-28
SOLDIERS AND SAILORS What Eastern Connecticut Boys Are Doing In Various Branches of the Service.
Chartered in Old Chalk Mine.

. Snea Company A. 191st Machine Gun Battalion, A. E. F., describes the sol dler'S life in France in an interesting way. The letter follows: In Bomb Proof Cellar, Somewhere in France. Fev. 25, 1s1S. Dear P. F.: Have not had much chance to write lately, but as we are now taking g. rest after being at the front can maybe catch up little. dont know whether you had better
 tell the girls that we are here or not, but then, by the time you get this we will be back resting, or on our fur ioughs which we expect soon. Well, we have gone back 5000 years in our way of living in the past month OF sn. We have lived in caves, mines, dug outs. cellars, and trenches. We move by night and keep under cover by day. Talk about cliff -dwellers and thee stone-age-thats us. Our steel helmets have proved to be good friends of ours. For once that they save us froM shrapnell, they save us a hundred times from pumping on the ceilings Of the caves and dug outs.
 I At present our company is scat tered through what is left of French l city or large village. There is not a | single building left standing, nothing is left but the cellars. All of the first | floors over here are of stone which
 makes the cellars boom proof unless
 H.-E. should drop directly upon them.
 All of the villages in this part of the country are in the same condition.
 Even the. graveyards are knocked to 1 pieces. In the graveyard in tfls place
 even the graves which are all walled I up, are broken open and the bones all scattered. In the center is a stone
 cruciffx with the cross all clipped and scared by shrapnel and the base all cracked, but the figure of Christ is as perfect as the day it was placed there. All this part of the country is over run with rats. Some rats. The other morning up at the front was awak- ened by one nibbling my hair. We have
 a hard time hiding our rations so that they will not get them.
 Yesterday Tom (Thomas Delaney of
 Greeneville), and I found a little cub by hole with an iron tank for roof and moved into it. It is a good place has there is room for both of us to lie
 down at the same time, and we can
 stand upright in it. There is only one
 rat here-an old sick fellow who
 coughs and gags all night. but well
 get him before long.
 We just returned from Red Cross
 shower bath. and say. it's the best thing I've seen since I took the shil-
 ling" You should see thc mules we
 have here, they are dandies, but it's not safe to leave soap, candies or to-
 baece where they can get them.
 A couple of days later in a dug out:
 We'll, we are back in it again Wt . are quartered in an old German dug
 out on the slope of a hill facing tht
 Hun position Only our section (; squads) are in this cave. The frs line is back of us and our guns with {
 non-com. in command, are at the foo l of the hill a few hundred yards to oul
 front. There is nothing to stop : !, whis bang from coming to visit u !, but burlap curtain.
 , A short while ago we were quartereI , in an old chalk mine with about f1v,
 thousand other troops This mine hat , been bought by a German firm fey years before the war and hollowed ou
 in big caverns, each big enough t, , hold 8 company. It is only a fev months ago that they were chased ou of it. It is lighted and contains !;
 canteen and kitchens, etc. We spen , a Sunday there and they said mass il one of the caverns. Tn another place
 we went to mass in a church that hat USGI. hIlDCh6u TUT d SOdl
 Well, I guess you can read bettel descriptions of this country than } could give you, but to see the way thi! whole section of France is destroyed } would be a good thing for those Amer , jeans CD who say, eve ought to wal until they come over here" Well, will have to be on the guns tonigh so Pm going to- turn in until dark. } Next day Paragraph censored. Tom is my gunner and every tim g one went past his ear he would sa.
 You German -----' and sent l another clip through. Just as it wa t getting interesting one of our gun n damned and while I was fixing it -ev e erything stopped as suddenly as C started and the reserves went bacl q to bed CD
 0 There is nothing more could te' :, you that would get by the censor ex | cept that we see air fights every day
 It would make you think of when yo e | played "Prisoners Base" to see ther T chase each other back and forth ove :. the lines. Sometimes one will snea u out from behind cloud and get a e observation balloon and then the oh = server will make parachute drop. u A day later.
 Say! This is getting to be some lei l t6T. l T0CSifeQ two I0Ul6IS lEOu1 h "A today, one dated Jan. 18th and the otl al CT dated Jan. 27th. Glad to hear ever n one is we'll. I never fet better in m tts life. I have not been sick or on sick report since I enlisted. The nea "a , est came to it was when I wore ,a ,a pair of socks I got from the Rt tt Cross; I suppose it was made t5 +b some sweet little kid who started ,- make sweater and when she had ha .d done decided it looked more like ~ sock and sent it over. It put a blist m on my toe, but, luckily I had frozt is that toe, and didn't know about it u as til put the sock on the other fot he The tee is all right now and the so as made darn good gun-rag. It wou of be better for some of the knitters D. save the wool and put the money i
 to chocolate.
 Tell Name I'm alright, but when
 get home to give me g. couple
 blankets in the cellar. If she cal s. find me some morning when she go to call me, tell her to look in the coz
 bin or under the veranda. would Ii to send John some hand grenades ne play with, I'll bet they would plea as him. I'm sitting on a box of the . now.
 Il So long, ,h, M1t<E