Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-16
Tells of City's
Fighting Men
Behind Lines

Captain John T. Bretz well-known
Harrisburg National Guardsman,
who is now in France with the Amer
lean EXpeditionary Forces, serving
with Company d, 112th Infantry,
2Sth (Keystone) Division, which
forms a unit in the Second Army
Corps, according to General Marchs
announcement of last Saturday, has
written an interesting descriptive
letter of some of the experiences he
has had since he left Camp Han
cock, Ga, for France. The letter,
addressed to Captain Henry M. Stine,
formerly of the division, follows in
part:
Feels Press of Censorship
Somewhere in France,
May 26, 1918.
My Dear Capt. Slime:
This being Sunday we are allow
ed half-holiday, so l am going to
take advantage of the opportunity
to drop you a few lines. 1t is rather
difficult to write an interesting letter,
for there is so little that we are per-
mitted to write about.
I'VE are here within sound of the
heavy guns, yet we know far less
about the war than you folks in
America. Last evening we received
some news of the war, the first we
have had since we received the wire
less reports, while crossing the At
lantic.
I'VE embarked and were aboard
ship less than twenty-four hours be-
fore we sailed. We were fortunate
enough to sail on one of the largest
and fastest boats afioat and we had
a very delightful trip. To have seen
the men on board the ship you would
have supposed it was a jolly crowd
on its way down to Coney Island.
IF anyone aboard was suffering
from submarine chills,' it was
mighty well concealed. on the way
over we received the baseball scores
and war news every day by wireless.
Each evening we had concert and
entertainment for the officers and
enlisted men. We had boat drills
twice each day and succeeded final
ly in getting all the men to their
boat stations in seven minutes. If |
could tell you how many decks there
were and how many thousand men
were aboard you could better appre-
ciate what this meant. We were for
tunate enough not to see any sub
marines, but the boat ahead of us
ran one down and its convoy got
two.
Happy on Reaching Port
I'VE entered the danger zone the
last night of our trip, but | slept very
well all night; in fact l did not wake
up until 7.45 and nearly missed
breakfast. OF course we were all
much relieved and happy when we
landed in our port.
I'VE stopped at two rest camps in
England and had a little thrill later
when we crossed the channel.
I'VE are now in our second camp
in France and are at work on our
training schedule. We witnessed an
air raid the third night we were
here and we had quite time keep
ing the men under cover.
They wanted to get their moneys
worth and see the whole show.
while in one of the littl clowns
about a week ago l met our good
friend, Sergeant Meredith, and he
was just as sunny and happy as ever.
Praises Sergeant Meredith
Il don't know of a Harrisburger
in the service that I admire more
than the sergeant. He has made a
great sacrifice and is deserving of the
highest praise.
81 wish l could tell you something
of our trip and our experiences here,
but we are not permitted to mention
ports, names of organizations, cities