Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-12-06
ECHOSE FROM THE
+ HEAVY CANNONS
Under Date of October IL, Iron Coun-
ty Lad Describes Fighting at Front
Including Spectacular Air Raids.

Somewhere in France, Oct. IL, 1918
Mr.. X. J. Williams, Kanarra, Utah.
Dear Friend Reese.-I received your
letter and was very glad and also
surprised to hear from you. l believe
this is Oct. IL, but I'll be darned if |
can tell. Some of our warmest argu-
ments are on which day of the month
it is, and we have the greatest argu-
ments on which day is Sunday, SO
you see a good Christian is out of
luck in this mans army, but one can't
disobey the sixth commandment and
get by very well, but you know me-
I'm getting by.
If we have anything stolen from us,
all we need do is to take that amount
of stuff off dead man. During gas
attacks our orders are, eff your mask
leaks, just take one off dead man
and beat it on your way" but hope
| don't ever have to do it. That gas
has certainly worked. on some of the
boys, but Fritzie can't put it over SO
much now because he is on the run
so much he hasn't time for anything
Only once in a while does he stop to
plant big gun and he sure does put
over some big ones. Oh, boy, it's the
Funniest sound you ever heard when
those big ones ,whiz through the air;
the sound is enough to make an or
binary fellow SILVER, but its only
sweet music to us-just as if birds
were singing to make us happy The
noise is bad enough going through
the air, but just wait till they ex-
plode! For example, took nineteen
horses and two men to stop one that
hit about $50 yards behind us, be-
sides the men and horses that were
wounded. The shrapnel all goes for
ward from where the shell lights, SO
none of our men were hurt. They are
heaying them over every day at roads
and cross roads, but most of them go
over us. Fritz is trying to explode
the mines he has left behind and one
of our field hospitals was shelled the
other day. 1t certainly doesn't do to
be gun shy because with the shells
coming over and exploding and the
ones we are continually sending over,
and these busting in the air directly
over our heads, there is certainly
some noise. About rs yards to our
left are several batteries of inch
guns that are not afraid of firing too
often and the conclusion nearly
knocks our tents down. If we were
sleeping in bed we would nodoubt
be Jared out, but as it is they only
roll us around and rock us to sleep;
but we are awake enough of the time.
Lucky that many of the shells come
over and don't explode. We listen
to them coming through the air and
wait for the explosion, and when there
is none, all the boys yell "Hurrah!
dud;" for that is what they are
called.
We see many air battles, especially
while balloon is up. OF course the
Yanks are always victorious in chas-
ing the Boche. It's sure some sight to
see their planes fall and their balloons
burn. I've seen good many of both.
The last | saw was day before yester-
day, while in "chow" line for supper,
balloon fell on fire and it was sure
one grand sight, as it was nearly
dark and t made a very effective pic
ture.
The Boches are very clever about
sneaking out of the clouds and firing
at the balloons, but they have only
burned two for us in this vicinity,
but that's not saying how many times
they have tried and been sent away
unsuccessful or brought down.
You don't know how wish | were
an aviator. My highest ambition
would be to burn every Boche balloon
that came over the tree tops. About
week ago | saw more than rs ally
planes in the air at one time.
thought that was great number, but
today | saw and counted better than
1875 bombing planes besides the spads
and battling planes that went over
some time during the morning. When
they return they are a little more
scattered so we didn't count them.
When it is cloudy the Boche have a
little the advantage over our balloons.
Today one swooped down and flew
over the top of one of our balloons
and dropped bunch of liquid fire,
then with his foot heavy on the throt-
tie he made for ours, but our machine
gun barrage was too hot for him, and