The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-02-07
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HIKING INTO GERMANY
Earl j, Stratton Wrlteo OF Long March
To tho Rhino

Mrs. Eliza Crawford OF Old Ben.
nington has received all interesting
letter from her grandson, Private
Earl j. Stratton of the 9Th regiment
of marines attached to the army of
occupation in Germany Private
Stratton writes
I'VE have Just, finished long hike
across France, belgium and Ger.
many and expect TO bo In this town
for few weeks before wo reach our
final destination which, think, will
bo Coblenx on tho Rhine ~
Il landed in France on November
3 and on the. 18th wa staI7cdi on our
long hike to the. Rhine. clna all We
have hiked about 3l2 miles, a. near
as can figure but MS We took near
y month to do 1t, it's not so bad
as II sounds, We had rests in sew.
oral towns and In one place we re-
mained a whole week. The weather
during the hiks was all that could
have been expected, rather cool and
snappy, but when you are hiking
with a pack on your back YOU soon
get warmed up. The real winter over
here usually starts about the first
months, so We haven't had any ac-
tual winter as yet. J expect we will
be In barracks before cold weather.
"We are billeted in a barn just
now and | am writing this letter In
German woman's home. She Is
an old lady and had two sons in the
war. one OF whom was killed. The
German people seem to be glad that
the war Is over aud that the Kaiser
Is no more and sure do treat tho
American soldiers fine | had ex-
pected n cool reception from them
hbut they are only too glad 10 have us
use their houses and they evon 20 50
far as to cook fried potatoes and
make wafIles for. us. OF course their
-four supply is limited and they don't
have much in the line of pastry.
Vegetables are plentiful and believe
me, these German people know how
to cook stun even if they don't know
when they are licked in scrap.
"We are getting very good rations
from our company kitchen now. For
Instance, this noon for dinner we had
mashed potatoes. gravey, boiled beef
boiled turnips, bread and coffee We
get rice aud bacon. corn meal musl
and steaks and beef stew Naturally
II is not always possible for us to gel
a hot meal when we are hiking but
we have no kick on our chow.
81 suppose you are wondering If
saw any of the real lighting | didn'i
as the armistlce was signed before
left the rest camp ut Bresi, whcr,
we landed in France. We were sen
over here as n replacement battal
ion, that is we were to hll the va
cancies made by men who had beel
wounded and killed As soon as th'
armistico was signed and the Amer
lean troops began to leave the iron
we joined the regiment TO which w
would have been assigned had Tho
, nghting continued
There are fellows IN our compan.
: who have been through 1t all an
/ who are still alive TO tell about Il
, Believe me. I'm not "a bit sorry tha
III was late for the fighting, as
would have been an awful white
, had the war lasted All The old tin
crs say that we should consider oul
selves lucky in being too late to Sc
the actual fighting. We saw seyera
4 towns that the Germans had BON
! barded and they were nothing bu
! heaps OF ruins At Vordun we eN
+ plored some of the old French dul
outs and Il was there that I receive
= my last letter from home.