The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1918-09-13
FROM A SOLDIER AT THE FRONT

The following is a letter published
in the Centralia Chronicle from q
young soldier from that city named
Tom Williams, who went across as
a member of the old End Washington.
afterwards the 161st Infantry, now al
most denuded of it's original members
who have been transferred to other
regiments in the service. The writer
of this letter is a nephew of our
townsman, j. M. T. Williams. That.
| and together with the fact that at
| least two Oroville boys are members
of the 161st gives the letter a local
interest:
Tom Williams, a member of the
| 1915 class of the Centralia high school
| who went to France with Co. M, 161st
Infantry, but who is now a member
of Co. A, 26th Infantry, has been
slightly gassed, according to a letter
received by his mother, Mrs. Mary
Williams, S11 Park Way. In his let
ter the soldier describes q German
counter-attack He writes as fol-
lows:
Il have been rather irregular in
my writing to you lately, but 1t ia
accounted for by telling you that
have been at the front all Of the time
for the past six weeks.
II know you have read by this time
of the offensive launched by the allied
armies of France and America in the
region of scissors, but l know that
you will be glad to know that was
one of the lucky ones to take part In
it, and still am alive and good for q
lot of Germans yet. 1t seems surely
great to see them throw down their
guns and put up their hands, hollering
'Kamarad. or rather gasping 1t out
as if they were scared we would
bayOnet them. We were too busy NOV
ing forward to bother with them.
There We're lots of our boys back Of
us to see that they behaved according
to Hoyle. After We reached our OBJ
jective and dug in for little rest,
we rested by exploring some old ar
tllery dugouts. In one of them
found a box of homemade cake and
roll of fresh butter which the boches
must have just received from home.
1t was poor cake, no more than q
sweet bread. of some dark flour, but
the butter was fine. 1t would have
made cardboard taste like angel food
cake to u.s. There were also six can
teens full of coffee. That is, took
it for what they must call coffee, but
it tasted more like water off parched
corn. The main thing was it was wet.
and very drinkagle, since out can
teens were all empty. You know the
excitement dries up your mouth until
it feels like the inside of an oven.
Well, we had a good feed on Mr..
Boche and then went back to our
shell hole defense, but not to rest
1t was a counter attack that called
us out, but such a weak affair. We
were so pleased to get sight Of q
German that wasn't running either
from us or toward us with his hands
up, that We just stood up in front Of
our trenches and shot them with our
rifles and automatics. They got with
in about 300 yards of us and turned
and went back. 1t all lasted about
five minutes. We were so close to
their artillery that they had to shoot
point blank at us, and the shells
would hit the ground a glancing blow
and not explode. We could see them
before they hit and get out OF their
way. 1t was like lodging snowballs
at school.
1--WE have such a good nurse. She
calls herself Grandma to everyone.
She just had me stop in the middle
of this letter to fix my finger nails.
She said. When your finger nails are
not trimmed, it looks like no one
cares for you,' SO, of course, I fixed
them.
II don't think that l have told you
that | got little too much gas. 1t
made me sick for while, but don't
think it will bother me long. l am
just weak now, but will be o X again.
1t is nothing to worry about at ALL"