Catoctin clarion., 1918-07-04

with glass rOOf-sittlng along the wa
scraping bearing when terrific explo
sion occurred. The glass in the roo
came tumbling down, and then came an
other louder explosion. The building
shook and the ground trembled, NOR
glass came down, some of the fellow
getting cut. Men were Topping on thei
stomachs under benches and machines
l ran out of the building thinking the
Boche were overhead dropping bombs OF
the buildings which were in row, blow
ing them up one after another, for eacl
explosion seemed closer. When | go
outside there was another explosion il
the air about one-half mile away. II
looked as though there were thousands
of stars in the sky. 1t left a column Of
smoke about 900 feet in the air. Thi>
smoke looked like great cloud of gas
as it lay between US and the sun. The
outer edges were a bright white, the in
side, coal black. | found out from 2
Frenchman that it was large quantity
of hand grenades and ammunition that
had blown up, so | could stand and
watch those who did not know what il
was. Well, this was worth seeing. Most
of the men thought the smoke was gas
and as we had no gas masks at this time
you can imagine the excitement Amer
leans came out of the shop, Frenchmen
came out wooden shoes flying in all d.
rections.
Then there are some soldiers here who
| think are from Siam, similar to the
Chinese. They took the prize Some of
them couldn't get away fast enough.
They tried to run on water and pretty
nearly drowned. They l,,'t believe a
man is dead unless his head is cut off.
One got as far as Paris with a Boche's $
head that he was taking home for SOU
venir. Another instance, one of these
men was put In charge of some prisoners
and told not to let them move. When
the officers returned all the Germans
heads were cut off and when asked why
he did it he replied that he wanted to
make sure they didn't move. Outside
of this instance do not know of time
that the prisoners are not well treated.
Some are left in charge of farmers
who use them to help do the farm work.
Going back to the running again | must
say Stoner or Eyler never had anything
on some of these fellows for running.
When | went back in the shop the
ground, benches, machines and every
thing was covered with glass. The glass
was about of an inch in thickness. |
had to hunt quite while before could
find my scraper and the bearing | was
working on. did not remember where
| had laid them lido you blame me?).
When | found them they were quite a
distance apart.
We stayed at this camp about month
and then left for a further distance from
the front TO an aviation camp which |
suppose will soon be the largest in France
They are putting up an average of one
hangar each day. A hangar holds from
10 to 20 machines according to the size
and type of airplane Since leaving the
other camp bombs blew up the very
building slept in.
| will have to close this letter now as
| want to mail it before leaving here |
am in Paris this morning to play ball
with the regimental team. | do not
know if am to do the twirling today or
not. We played a game against the
Navy on Memorial Day, our team repre-
senting the Army. We lost-Navy 4,
Army 3.
| was in Paris on a pass the Sunday
when the long range gun had started to
drop shell. They We're falling at the rate
of one every ten minutes that day. On
Memorial Day they dropped few.
was at station to get on train several
weeks ago when bomb hit it and killed
several people. The conclusion knocked
several of US down. That was getting
close, wasn't it?
Well these are just few of my ex-
periences. If tried to tell you all the
happenings and sights | have seen since
leaving well, it would fill book.
have been doing all kinds of work
over here military policeing, auto en-
gine repairing, etc. Made couple of
trips to the front with ammunition and
airplane motor works. 1t is nice to get
away up in the air and look out for miles
and fly above the clouds
AS airplane mechanic you often go with
the pilot to the front for two weeks at
time. have not went yet, but some of
the fellows have.
The country is very beautiful. We
have had cherries two weeks ago. and
saw some peaches this morning. Have
had no rain for nearly month.
Should the Germans take Paris which
is not likely, you can imagine you see me
hauling things out to the last minute.
Will say goodbye for this time.
Your friend,
Corporal Edwin Creeger,
IN Al