Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-06-13

Charles s. Davis. first class private,
Company G, 1881 Infantry, formerly
of Augusta. recently writes as fol-
lows to his wife, Mrs. Charles S.
Davis:
In our start we had very hard
training, morning till night, then it
came night and days for a while.
We threw all kinds of bombs and
grenades, the real ones. 1t was some
experience on the start, but every
man was right there with the goods.
They care for nothing. Then came
our practice in trenches day and
night, and the sending up of the
rockets to know the meaning of diff
ferent lights, and the Illumination or
fare rocket that lights. up No Mans
Land, for going over the top and
making attacks. 1t was very inter-
ostinS. Then came a call for real
business to the front lines. A tire
some ride it was. Then our first ex-
perience for our eyes to see the
trenches and wire entanglements.
Then all the ruined villages. people
living underground and all kinds of
places. Our first experience was to
go into a big cave 40 or so feet un-
der ground There were electric
lights and hunks or limitation cots
to sleep on. 1t was damp and
musty in there, but it was quite COM
all the time it was so dark. The
cave would hold a whole regiment or
perhaps more. There were many
larger ones. Very often the shells
came over making US visit. While
we We're in that cave we saw an air
fight between two French and one
American plane against Boche
machine guns of the planes were
going it like everything and was
quite q battle. The Boche turned
upside down and fell many thousand
feet. He was killed. 1t wasn't long
after that before many Of the boys Of
different companies had a piece of
the machine. Then another fight be-
tween the French observation balloon
and Boche airplane. He got the
balloon and set it afire by bombs but
the fellow got out in time and came
down in his parachute and landed
safely. Then we began to go dig
ging trenches in second lines, hiked
few miles from the cave, do this at
night. Our first surprise was to meet
with a number of big shells and
what a noise they made. OF course
we had to stop digging and to hug
to the bottom of the trench, although
that is where we began to get used
to gun fire. Somehow they found out
our being there and tried to scare us
after awhile and nobody was hurt.
Then we started back home. 1t was
so every night we dug and we went
there every night until we went in,
Then came the real stuff. They
thought they were going to drive US
out the first thing, but they met with
n big surprise. They tried 1t two
nights in succession, but no use.
Their barrages took no effect on us
and gas also. We were there a num-
Der of DAYS then went back in the
reserve for few days. Then in
again to go on another sector and met
with the same results. Believe me,
there was some lively going, al
though the boys were there with
smiles and done the work as though
there was no shells coming at all.
The sky was very light from the
flash Of the big guns and shells
bursting. This is all done at night
mostly. We were always ready to
meet them when they started their
heavy gun fire and what noise.
Also the Boche had notion Of visit
ing us quite often with machine gun
fire from the airplanes. Now that we
have heard so much noise from the
guns and shell fire. we feel out Of
place when getting back out of gun