Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-04
FIRST CITY TROOPER
TELLS OF U. S. DRIVE
Soldiers Don't Mind Sleeping
in Damp, Says Wilfred
s. Lewis

The crashing Of boche artillery doesn't dis
turb tired Yank when he lies down to rest
after an all-day march. Nor does he COM
plain in the slightest degree when he has 10
sleep in damp woods with nothing but q
blanket for boudoir
Such experiences frequently fell to the lot
Of Wilfred Sargent Lewis. Of the l0Sd Trench
Mortar Battery. late of the First CITY Troop
Of Philadelphia.
Lewis. who is helping TO chase the Ger
mans toward Berlin. sent letter to his par
ents, Mr., and Mrs wlfred Lewis, Of Rose
lane, IIaverford in which he touches on some
of his experiences in the present boche hunt
Troubles Encountered
Explaining some of Ne troubles enooun-
tered before the mortar battery gets to the
firing line, Lewis writes:
The airplancs crcled overhead like vui-
lures and the shrapnel puffs burst all around
them. one fell with the wing torn of. We
slept most of the afternoon hidden in the
underbrush or ate our canned beans. tona-
toes and beef we had brought. The artillery
kept on, ours and theirs pretty steadily
When night came the machine guns opened
up and the boche set about to destroy them
by shellfire. Then the shells did come near
US. We had dirt thrown us more than
once, and the conclusion was like a big
wind We had some trees TO cut down TO
clear line of fire, but "A few ak strokes
ringing out brought the machine-gun bullets
clipping through the leaves and we had to
call II off. once heard voices and with
fixed bayonets waited--nothing came of IT,
The relief with the guns was supposed TO
come in about midnight and we were packed
up to go. but as the small hours dragged by
they came not; so we wrapped ourselves in
I1s,,l tt,Ntf 1.tA In.
the morning,
Opened with Barrage
"rhe second morning opened with bar
rage from our guns The shells swept over
head and crashed over the German posi-
tions. about 400 yards away, but they
answered never a word
AT about Il. m. the infantry advanced
and our lieutenant and sergeant saw them
climb the steep hill. where the Germans had
been, and go out over the crest in perfect
quiet. for the enemy had left in the night
AT about o'clock in the afternoon wa
sent out two men for water-things were
so peaceful--but the German plane must
have seen them leave and re-enter the woods,
for about half an hour later shells began to
comel in all around. We packed up hurriedy
and got into some dugouts in "a road en-
bankment and spent three hours there while
they ralIed woods and all around. We
had to put on our masks three times for
snort intervals. once a bunch OF doughbOys
got into our shelters They were going
ahead. one of them, sneeZing like anything
and weeping great tears, yet refused to put
on his mask, saying that he couldn't stand
it. He "A character. After them pIa-
toon of engineers got in with us They
were on their way TO build two bridges one
for heavy and one for field artillery. They
had the bridges up on a hill in trucks. but
the trucks had been shelled, they had
left them for II while. When things quieted
down a bit left our dugouts and rested
| in a road cut, full of gas, until dark. Then
| We climbed up "A hill out of our hollow and
started weary hike Of fifteen or twenty
miles back to here"
Lewis left Yale when he was twenty years
| old and enlisted in the First City Troop