The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-06-13
American Army,
Though Small, is
Doing Its Share
April 2s. 1918.

-'tr A-p' thr7 cfhE-
Having just finished sending in my
reports. and making the rounds and
have a slight breathing spell. SO will
use IL this way. | do hope that you
on account of this big offensive, you
must be worried. The American
Army be II ever so humble" at this
time. is doing her share and We are
not even gotten scratch yet and
have had some swell times. II is
lots of fun when you are out in the
open and the shells are bursting all
around. that is one place where the
old expression. -'all dressed up and no
place to CO. certainly applies. After
you get accustomed to things. how
ever. IL is not so bad as most people
think. but it is fright getting brok-
en- in.
on this last move we have lived a
great deal in houses of refugees 1t
is certainly piiiful. the families. fl
seems. just took the slightest necessi.
ties and left in haste Fields were
left half planted. gardens all green.
some fires were sill burning in the
fire places. and books and stun on
tables and in the book cases.
One day saw an old man walking
along the road. pushing wheeIbar-
TOW. he said he had pushed the thing
forty kilometers and was still going
The scenes of this war are rot pleas
ami things to behold: there is nothing
that | can remember seeing in con.
ncction with 1t, that has pleased me.
unless II WAS a lot OF dead "Bocn.s d"
The weather today is the same as
usual, cold and rainins; | firmly be-
iicye that this intense artillery fire
has something TO do with H. No mil
itary man in the world has even seen
or heard worse artillery fire than
that which has been going on around
here FOR the last few weeks. just a
continual boom. boom. boom. there
are very few "lulls" in the firing.
and when they do occur. ii is just to
get up another store with which to
make an intense barage
Yesterday | saw beautiful air
fight. with the planes turning flip
flops. ducking. darting. lodging. To
use the machine gun in fighting
plane the gun points thru the propell-
or and the aviator has to dive head
first at his adversary to bring him
into line or range. They are certain
iy Interesting scraps and the men
watch them like they would a prize
fight or horse race have seen
planes shot down in the air. tina, have
fallen right in the middle of No Mans
Land, of course. as soon as they hit
the ground. the enemy. IL II is our
plane. or we. IL 1t is the enemy plane,
turn machine guns on the plane. so
that there will be no show for the
aviator TO live. Then at night. pa
trolls are Immediately sent out to
bring in whatever information the
man may have had on him. friendly
or otherwise. Many times very valu.
able information is obtained. such as
photographs OF positions. orders. etc.
But I feel that have lost nothing up
in the air. and prefer the old. mud
covered. worno out. dog of the army.
dough boys job. and there is no doubt
about II. the infantry is the dog of
the service. we live In the muddy.
cold trenches. do all of the hand.to-
hand fighting. and Just bear the
brunt OF the burden. We even do en-
gineering Jobs; we build roads. put
up entanglements. dig trenches. dig
emplacements. in fact. do about every
thing
The soldiers over there. who i'm
agine themselves going over the top
singing the Star Spangled Banner
waving flags. etc. are very apt to be
sadly disappointed, We do not do
things THAI way. The least noise and
visibility possible. is the best system
] must close folks. my letters are
always interrupted SO many times,
and every time my chain of thought
broken. that 1t is very difficult for
me to write good connected letter
any more. am feeling fine and liv-