The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-07-19
LETTERS FROM THE
BOYS IN ARMY CAMPS


of the following letter from her
nephew, Ernest L. G. Gettmann:
France, June 10, 191S.-Dear Aunt
Nell: ! am still in the hospital but
feeling must better than / was when
/ wrote you last. / am in a differ
ent hospital than was before, in
fact have been in two or three diff
ferent ones but l guess / am here to
stay now until l am ready to go
back to duty.
l got worse dose of gas than
supposed at first for I didn't think
then that l had any in my lungs but
it is plain now that l did. You see
that stuff is peculiar, sometimes it is
weeks before it is noticeable to any
great extent and then again it will
burn like lye, only thousand times
worse and when it gets in your eyes
| it is misery for usually about a
week before it lets up.
l don't mind the rifle or machine
gun bullets or the bayonets or hand
grenades or any of the weapons Of
open man to man fighting, but d.
the artillery and the gas and the
shrapnel All you can do is to lay
and take them and trust in God not
to get hit but the other you can
send back as fast as any square head
can send them at you and you know
that if you are scared he is just a
| little bit more scared If he throws
a hand grenade dodge it and throw
| two back at him, if he comes at you
with bayOnet, go for him with
yours, if he shoots at you, drop be-
hind a rock and plug him. Fritz is
| a wonderfully poor shot, he can't hit
anything over 100 yards unless it is
an accident. The Germans are no
earthly good when it comes to fight
| ing in the open unless he outnumbers
lyou about ten to one, hence the mass
ed formation which by the way is
nuts for machine gun. They will
go three artillery or machine gun
| fire in that massed formation of
| theirs until it seems unbelievable,
but let a bunch go for them with the
bayonet and they viii break and run
| like rabbits. They can't stand the
cold steel. If they would remove the
artillery, gas, aeroplanes, barbed
wire, trenches and so forth and go
after them with the rifle and bayonet
there are enough Americans in
France right now to lick the whole
| German army.
| Well here comes the nurse with
some medicine and it is getting near
supper time so / guess l will quit
and say goodby. Your loving nephew
Ernest L. G. Gettmann.
Mr.. Gettmann writes to his mother
as follows:
Somewhere in France, June T.
191S.7FDear Mammal; should have
written you before but we have been
chased around from hitler to yon
ever since /, started for the hospital
and I expect to move, again in the
morning You see the French hospi-
tails take care of some of the Ameri-
can wounded and I went through
three, or four of them before I finally
arrived where am now. When l left
the second or third forget which
we took the train and through some
mixup in the orders, they took us
away off on, some e1horse forgot
4 ten siding and unloaded us there
with nothing to eat and no place IL
sleep except on benches or on the
! floor and, of course, WE didn't have
our packs with Ius so we couldn't
make up bed. They told us thai
we would take ambulances for the
Hospital e in about Two hours but we
didn't see any ambulances until about
nine o'clock the next morning. Be-
lieve me, that was one awful night
You see, l hadn't had any sleep fol-
| about seventy-two hours up to the
time | was gassed, and then to miss
that nights sleep, it was nearly toe
much. But then, alPs well that ends
well. s4t
| I am feeling pretty good today al
| though my throat is sore and my
! nose is all stopped up as if l had a
hard cold, can't taste anything anC
my stomach is not working at tor
speed, and my eyes are little. sore
yet-Otherwise I'm a ldarned good
soldier for the shape I'm in. / can
taste absolutely nothing; strawberry
jam Eyes, We actually get it here in
the hospitaD tastes just like fried
ham 1--WE get that, too) so there ISM
much pleasure for me in going tC
dinner, and you know that when ]
can't eat, I'm a pretty sick kid. Ny
eyes were not affected very much sc
they are alright, and got little in
my stomach through eating bread
that had been exposed to the gas but
j got quite dose in my nose and
throat. They are not especially pain
full but cough a great deal at night
We had an air raid here last night
at least they tell me we didn't know
anything about it because l slept
through it all and didn't hear thing
all night long. / slept the same way
when the boche were throwing six
inch shells at me and ground was
shaking and quivering like an earth
lquake had struck it. It's funny, ain't
it, the way man can become used
Ito anything. Big Bertha, that's the
! German long range gun which bonn
bards Paris, has been throwing shells
at us off and on all day but guess
she doesn't do much damage, and
sneither did the Huns on their raid.
Judging from the reports we get ]
guess the Hun thought he would
have pickings when it came to the
unframed (?) American troops but
he is finding out his mistake every
day. Every bunch of men that have
gone into the trenches have taken a
fall out of him and the morale OF
the prisoners doesn't seem IN he or