The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1918-12-26
ERSEA SOLDIER BOYS
YAVlNG INTERESTING LIFE
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yoy. Our outfit was lucky in getting
one of the largest boats afoat, fol-
our voyage across. have a pretty
good idea now of the size and equip
rnent of the boat which you sailed on
when you took that trip across.
Our voyage was uneventful. We
only had one day Of rough sea and it
was rough enough that day so that
there were good many seasick men.
was lucky enough to make the whole
trip without getting sea sick. We
landed in port in southwestern Eng
land on the morning of August 10th.
We were stationed at rest camp
acre over Sunday, and left the camp
Monday morning. We got on another
boat that afternoon and sailed from
there that evening, waking up the
next morning, August 10th to find
ourselves in French seaport.
We got off the boat that morning
and marched out to rest camp
where we staid until August 22nd
when we were marched to the city
again and loaded into box cars. We
each carried our own pack and rifle
which makes a weight of about 65 or
10 pounds, and that takes all the fun
cut of a march. We were loaded into
the box cars, SO men and their COM
plete equipment to each car. You
more than likely saw some of these
freight cars when you made your trip
across so you know the size of them.
They are about #. by "a #. so you
can imagine how much room we had.
Anyway there wasn't room for us all
to lay down to sleep at the same time
so we "slept in shifts" as it were. We
spent two days and three nights in
those box cars with nothing to sit
or lay on except the hard rough
floor. They have no air brakes on
the cars so you can imagine what a
nice jolting we would get whenever
the train stopped. Anyway we lived
through the all right and I can't say
that we were so very much worse off
for our experience, although we were
pretty well tired out when we finally
unloaded in a little city in about the
central part of France.
From that little city we marched
about eight miles with our full packs
on our backs, to a small village. 1t
was the afternoon of August oath,
that we got there so you see the whole
trip from the training camp in the D..
S. A. to that little village, counting
our stops in rest camps, only took rs
days. I have talked with lots of the
boys over here about their trip across
the water and find that it took most
of them Ia days to come across and
some were on the way as much as 81
days. 1t only took US seven days to
cross the ocean.
guess that we were the first AM
erican troops to be stationed in that
little village for the people there
. seemed to take an unusual interest in
us.
Judging from what I have seen
since leaving there I guess that that
is one of the poorer sections of
France. The houses were all built
of stone, as they seem to be all over
in this country, for don't remember
of seeing frame building since land
ing here. They also have solid stone
walls around most of the places.
We do not have tents or barracks
for quarters" in these places but are
"billeted" around town or on farms.
AS many men as there is room for are
Out In each available vacant building
until the men are all taken care of.
That is what is meant by billeting the
men. The first Light there slept in
ths basement of a house N Il room
Vt oh apparently had been used for
chicken coop at one time, but was
then being used as woodshed. The
next day we moved into a vacant barn
and were quartered there for a couple
Of weeks. From there I moved into
an upstairs store room at the rear end
of bakery. While there we made
beds out of poles which we cut in the
woods so we had things quite COM
Portable there until it started to get
cold. Then the officers gave us per-
mission to rent rooms if we wanted to
80 my pal and / rustled around and
found fairly comfortable little room
with a real bed in it. There was also
alittle table and a couple of chairs, so
we felt real comfortable then. We
were there only three days after that
when the order came for the whole
company to move so we had to pack
up and leave. That is the way the
orders usually come in over here. We
never know, until just a few hours
ahead Of time, when we are going to
move.
= While we were in that little village
Joe jackson and Paul Donart were
transferred from the company. They
we're transferred about the middle of
September. Up to that time us boys
had been in the same company ever
since we left home. Doc. Schopf, of
the Home School, was also in this
company until the first part of Octo-
Der, when he was transferred.
Lucas was transferred into another
company of this regiment before we