The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-12-04
FROM THE BOYS IN SERVICE
Recent Letters Descriptive of the Life of the Boys
in Army and Navy

Mrs. Charles S. Chase has received
letters from her son, Private Paul A.
Chase 81 the headquarters company,
l4sth regiment, written in Belgium
Nov. : and NOV. s. In the last ono he
wrote that he intended TO 90 into ne
tion again the next morRng.. The let.
Nov, 8.
NV Dear Mother:
In again and out again and once
more I'm still alive to tell the story
Of the battle.
We started the drive on the thirty
first of last month and were relieved
last night. We were advancing all the
time, too. The Germans put up very
little resistance but their artillery fire
was most disconcerting TO say the least
The night before the drive started
slept in n field just outside OF the town
/ IN in now. The next day ! took the
message center men up to where regi-
mental headquarters was. We stayed
around there until night. We didn I
have anything 10 eat with us. We
hadn had anything the night before
Il
tain about il. lie sent me over 10 the
officers mess with instructions to get
something if they had IL, They gave
me loaf OF bread, some butter and
some coffee. a Belgium lady invited
us into her kitchen to eat and made
our coffee for ms. While / was after
the food n truck load Of bread went
by and every man grabbed a loaf, So
we started for the place 10 which head
quarters had moved The sergeant in
charge lost his way and we had an aw.
full time getting there. We finally
landed safely. The town was ali shot
up and we were located in an old cha
tC0u. We were in the basement, which
was in pretty good shape-the rest Of
the building was very badly wrecked
We were shelled pretty heavily that
night and morning and the Germans
sent over quite lot Of gas While
hero | sent runner who was killed
while making the trip. During the day
w. moved our headquarters up about
six hundred yards. This time we were
in cellar Of house right beside q
railroad. aud they sure did she'll that
place There was n bunch of men start
ing for the front when q shell landed
right among them killing four anC
wounding three. Their lieutenant wa,
with MS and when he heard about il h,
went out 10 see them. Another shell
got him, severely wounding him il
both legs. He lost lot of blood an,
later died. We had two runners
wounded
The next morning we moved forwar,
again. This time to a farm house quit
a ways up toward the front. w
weren't shclled az all while here. Oh
/ nearly forgot we were served roas
beef sandwiches while at our last stop
The people who had lived in this farm
house apparently had left in a hurr,
for there was COW, hen and 10
of house furnishings, lots of potatoes
some beans and quite a little wheat
/ fried myself some of the "spuds.
m getting TO be n regular cook
Things went fine this day and we mad
y big advance.
That afternoon we moved to quit
large town and established n temporar
II. G. The people at whose houses "
were produced an unlimited amount o
beer, which they insisted on US drink
ing. II was miserable stuff but we cor
sumcd a little rather than hurt thei
feelings. The people in this plac
turned out to see us as if we were
circus. They were APPARENTLY awfl
glad 10 see us for they shouted an
waved their hands. We stayed hel
only few hours and then moved II
again. On the way the people a
rushed out to see MS waving the
hands and shouting. II sure did mah
US feel good. We established our hcat
quarters in another chateau At OF
time il must have been 4 wonderful
magnificent place but now il is RUNE,
The hest part Of It was that il had
good cellar to stay in when they wei
Smelling us. We had our message eei
ter on the first floor. 1t was all fiji
until an aeroplane dropped a fe