Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1918-12-13
FORMER STUDENT
SEES REAL WAR
Dear Mr.. Barnard:


/ suppose you have almost given
up all hope of hearing anything from
link again, but in this letter l hope
to make up for lost time. / think ii
was some time in May or June that
! wrote last, after / had left my
soft" job as town major, and joined
X company of the 104th in the
trenches.
The trenches, now that we look
back, were not so bad, after all. They
were "rest camp" compared to
what we ran into later. After put
ting several months in the trenches,
our unit was said to be ready for a
rest" So, the first thing we knew
we had relieved the wonderful ma
rines In Belleau woods. That was
the beginning of our rest" OF
course we enjoyed it. oh, yes, we
enjoyed it so well that we went
lover the top" and chased the Ger
mans out of their trenches, so we
could rest better there. After we
took the trenches, we decided that
the only way to get rest was to-
chase the Germans out of the Cha
teau Thierry sector, and guess you
all know the result.
Seriously, though, it was no picnic
Censorship rules forbid saying very
much about this drive, beyond what
you have already read IN the papers.
suppose you Pullman folks would
like to know how l felt when / got
the order to take my platoon "over
the top" at 500 o'clock In the after
noon. Well, 1 felt just like did be-
fore a big football or basket ball
game. felt that we were ready and
that we could lick them. l wasn't
worried. And let me tell you, it's a
wonderfully exhilarating feeling one
has, when he goes lover the top
for the first time. Everyone is grin
ming, and yelling. What do you sup
pose they yell? "Give 'em hell" AS
lieutenant, was some yell leader
The first time one goes over the top,
said, one feels the exhilarating eff
fects of the excitement, the noise,
and the fight. After the first ex-
perience most men are not quite so
reckless, so foolish or so happy when
they "go over"
Well, We went over, through shap-
mel and high explosive fire, and then
through infantry and machine gun
fire. Machine gun fire caught us
from in front and on the flank. We
crawled over 400 yards through
wheat field, and, after crossing two
lines of wire, rushed the Germans
We captured several machine gun
ners, one officer, machine guns, am
munition and all sorts of stores. The
majority of the Germans ran away
when We rushed. From a distance
they bothered us all night with in
direct machine gun fire. In the
morning we advanced, thanked the
enemy, and then the big retreat of
the Germans from the salient was on
I can't go into particulars, but I
guess l can interest you by telling
you what we had to do In five days
We had one nights sleep. The rest
of the time we were either hiking,
fighting or getting ready to fight.
We had very little drinking water,
and almost no food. Our wagons
could not catch up with us. 1 guess
had about three meals In that time
mostly hard tack and "corned
Willy" We slept in our clothes,
with no blanket, raincoats, ponchos,
ETC., because such things were too
heavy to carry. Two rainy nights l
sat in puddle of water and tried to
sleep, with shells falling around us.
Yet the spirit Of our boys was Won
derful. Give en- hell'' was their
motto. And they certainly did give
the Germans hell OF course we
caught hell, too. l wish you could
have seen that dirty, unwashed, I'M
shaver, tattered, tired and happy
bunch when they were relieved. A
sight like that is certainly worth
seeing. It shows what Americans
can do and what they can stand.
It's curtains for the Kaiser.
had few adventures on my own
hook. Some day I'll tell you about
them. showed the Fasteners that
machine guns couldn't scare one man
from the Inland Empire. The men
say ! have q horseshoe around my
neck. Well. I hope it stays there un-
til the end of the war. because ]
want to go back to Pullman alive.
Just at present l am very busy
drilling new men just arrived to takt
the places of those dead or wounded