The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-12-26
FARGOAN DRIVES
OFFICER AUTO.
OVER ALPS FROM.
FRANCE TO ITALY.

His experiences in chauffeuring TO
officers along the battlefront in Eu
rope from Calais to Geneo, Italy, an
levents following the signing of arm
Iistice terms by the Germans, ar
described in q letter written .,
| George e. Gardner, son Of Mr.. an
Mrs. e. G. Gardner, 629 Ninth stree
south. Fargo, to Mrs. Geo. III. Hol
/ lister of Fargo He enlisted immedi
ately after his eighteenth birthday
and has been overseas since March
1918.
On one trip he drove Brigadiel
General AnselI 1,200 miles from Nice
GRANGE, to Geneo. making the trll
over the Alps and through towns
directly behind the Alsation front
His letter follows:
you'd think with the war over Z
person would find little time =
write but I've never been so busy n
NV Young life. I have a new 1915
Cadillac on the road, and belteVe me
I'm seeing the sights.
az can't remember much that hap
pened before the eleventh as
wasn't SO terribly interesting. was
in Paris the night of the eleventh
and twelfth and if you ever saw
wild crowd you have a faint idea q
what the town was like both of those
DAYS, was driving a National Sc
dan around town for a few days then
and so / saw a good deal OF 1t. That
evening tried to drive up the boul-
evard. I got in the crowd and 3ust
let them push me along until the po-
lice ran me off into a side street
q 6annc
that evening. When it was over we
got the metro toward home and 1t
stonped right in the heart Of town al
the Place de POpera and we mingled
with the mob for awhile. 1t hadn't
even started to break up at 1880
Won couldn't go where you liked.
The mob was so thick you JUST had
to follow or rather be carried Mong.
IT was the best natured mob and
about 95 per cent happy drunk. Pos
sibly YOU know something OF
French people and can IMAGINE
about the way they acted. When
I got home with Ellen walked
up the street with one OF the
other fellowe and then rode the
running board OF a taxi up to
the Arc de Triomphe where the
crowd was thickest, and from there
home. All the next day the celebra-
ton gathered force and that night
the town was crazy. Parades were
running every direction. Five or
six people would start off and pref
ty soon there would be a couple OF
blocks of parade following, all wav-
ing flags and shouting. had a very
dignified old colonel in the car in the
afternoon and was going through the
mob when we were surrounded by
about a hundred girls who opened
the door to the car and started to
parade through it. Each one kissed
each Of us as they went through and
thew had the old colonel crazy. /
even got tired Of it although they
were really beautiful bunch of
girls. think we were held up
about an hour and half before we
finally got out Of the mob. Poor coll
onel! I felt sorry for him. for his
protests were in vain and it was so
absolutely distasteful to him. He had
been wishing his wife were there to
see the sights just before the fun
started but think he was darn glad
she wasn't a few minutes later.
""Since then I've been up in Bel
GUM, in Brussels and all along the
English front that is so terribly dew
astated. Have seen the towns that
the Germans wil1fully wrecked, and
though you can't help being glad it's
over you wish that they had been
made to suffer the same thing. VAL
enciennes is one Of the towns. They
made the most artistic wreck of the
station you can imagine by, using
fire and dynamite. and then they've
gone through every house and brols-
en- every bit OF furniture into kind
ling, broken all the windows and
mirrors, ripped open mattresses and
burned the feathers, etc. don't be-
iieve there IN bed or chair or table
in town that can be used as such
again. They hacked up pianos and
broke sewing machines and after
that burned many of the buildings.
l was through Mons, Ypres, LeBasse,
Arras, Cambria, Armentierres, St.
Quentin and innumerable little
towns the condition of which is inde-
scribable. Towns of a couple Of
hundred thousand inhabitants with
out a habitable building left in them.
Along the Hindenburg line we saw
one little valley which held the
wrecks of eigteen big British tanks.
took some pictures hope will come
out good. If they do I'll send you
some or If my luclS's with me. bring
them to you in the near future
Hoping to hear from you some time
soon and that it won't be over a
year before ] get to see you, I re-
main. yours sincerely, George
696 M. T. Co. "A. p. o. 702, A. e. f,