The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-10-03
FROM OVER THERE
Private Davis, Ambulance Com
pany Writes of His Experiences

The following letter from Private
Delbert Davis, of the Ambulance Corps,
now in active service at the front in
France. has written the following letter
to his sister, Mrs. S. D. Whipkey.
which The Republican has been per-
mitted to publish.
DEAR SISTER-After | work my turn
about all l have to do is write and sleep.
Last night certainly did nv share of
sleeping SO now I'll write till time to
60 to work.
Our station has changed, and so has
our shifts. I'm on the noon to eight
p. m. shift. That gave me a sixteen
hour shift yesterday. | went on at
four a. M; we changed at noon and l
worked till eight p. m. A long old
siege, believe me. Our company is in
charge of the gas station now. We
care fer the gassed patients as they
come back. If it is mustard gas, which
they mostly all are. we just strip them
and give them bath in water that has
a bit of chloride of lime in it. Then the
burns are washed with a solution of
bicarbonate of soda and dressed. If
their eyes are bad we give them some
of the same solution in their eyes, and
if very bad a drop of one per cent. CO.
caine solution in each eve. Then they
are given clean suite of pajamas and
sent on to the Field Hospital that is in
the back area. While | was in the other
dressing station a man came through
that had been in No Mans Land eight
days. He had bullet wound through
both thighs. He got the first one try
ing to get out the third day he was
there, and the second a couple DAYS
later. He had dressed them and the
first one was healing nicely and the
other one was doing nicely.
1t has been very hot here and the
flies have been terrible, but it rained
last night quite bit. We had the first
electric storm I've seen in France. 1t
is hard to tell just when it does thunder
but it did last night. The flash az:d
roar of the guns are as bright and loud
as the lightning and thunder There Is
. a battery of big ones just back of our
billet. The billet is an old French
house of mud and stone. sleep on a
litter with my mead under the window.
The other night was trying to crowd
eight hours sleep into four before |
went on duty and was just at the height
of accomplishing it when one of those
big babies barked and lot of plaster
ing and stone came tumbing down on
my head. Well, | sat up and shook my
self expecting to see at least half of the
old house gone, for l thought it had
been hit. | was relieved when | heard
the comfortable shores of the other
boys Our kitchen is located just above
our billets and the planes fly over and
see smoke. suppose they think it is
battery, for the shells begin to arrive.
So far they have not done any damage
except mash mess kit for one of the
boys as he was eating his dinner. A
close call, but he didn't get a scratch.
got letter from Mother last night
that was mailed on May the fourth.
Some little time-was over four months
getting here. | read it but will not
trouble answering for long ago | wrote
about the things it speakseof.
The time certainly is flying 1t will
soon be winter and I'm not bit
anxious for cold weather Still Uncle
Sam always provides for the comfort of
his boys. We are eating pretty good
for forward area. For breakfast we
had toast, bacon, syrup and coffee. I've
fed on worse than that. For supper
| Ia9t Hl2ut We udu DOllSu Deans,
macaroni, coffee, bread and butter.
They also issued three bags of Bull
Durham tobacco and box of matches
to each man. Tobacco is regular is
sue here. There is a Y. NJ. c. A. here
they follow the boys right to the
trenches. My week up there they came
along in cars as far as they could and
then carried nuts, cigarettes and
chocolate to the boys The Red Cross
sent containers of hot chocolate. cans
of peaches and small cakes to the b3ys
who were where they couldn't have a
| fire.
If Fritz sees a smoke he gives it a
days allowance of "iron rations" in
about the period of five minutes. Iron
rations as issued TO US are cans of bully
beef and hard tack. SO there is where
Fritz's greetings get their name I'm
less one is very hungry one is as hard
to swolloW as the other
Well, it is most dinner time and | eat
at II 30 so as to get to my post at IL,
so will close for this time
Lovingly your brother,
DELBERT.
| AuuuSt O6 1919