The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1919-02-13
LETTERS FROM
HAND CO. BOYS
Edwin Joyce, Of Northeast Hand COun.
ty Has Seen Year Of Service
Issoudun, Indre, France
nov. %, 1918.

Dear Father:
This being the twenty-third Of No
vember, a day set aside for the soldiers
and sailors of the A. Z. F. as Dads
Victory Letter day." am going to tell
you Of my whole trip as near as / can
remember. l kept a diary from the
time we left Kelley Field until last
winter, sometime in February. and |
guess that someone stole Ii or else ]
lost it. ] still have the diary book you
sent me.
We left Garden City, N. Y, Decem-
Der 4, 1917 and sailed into Halifax har-
Dor the next morning after the terrible
explosion. On coming into the harbor
we passed the limo. or what was left
of II Just about the time we came
to the imo they let us out On deck q
soc the wreckage of the ships floating
around In the bay. When we landed
in the docks we could see women and
children running around as If they
were crazy. It sufe was an awful
sight. The town for miles was a great
mass of fire. steam and junk.
To look north from the docks the
buildings were leveled clear to the
ground. Even great steel structures
were torn down. Looking west the
town was not quite so bad. There
were a few buildings left standing, and
they were very few too, nothing much
but steel frames. Everything was
afire. All the waterpipes that were
bursted by the explosion were still
running and the steam from the hot
iron, brick and water was boiling up
into the air with the hlaze. We could
hear people moaning and crying Tor
a day and a half after we landed.
That same evening after We landed
it started to rain and sleet and 1t was
about thirty degrees below zero. We
stayed on deck as long as we could
and finally they made US go to u
quarters
The next morning the sun was shin
ing brightly, but IL sure was cold.
There was ice an inch thick frozen on
everything. We had roll call and went
down to breakfast and after breakfast
the captain took us off the ship for a
hike. There were about eleven squad
rons on our boat. We marched thru
town and around some OF the ruins
but they would not let US help with the
rescue work. We all wanted to help.
but | don't know why they would not
let us. We stayed in there abou a
week before we started across.
About five days after we left Halifax
and after we entered the danger zone,
we sighted a sub, but it disappeared
in a short time. There were about
sixteen transports in u convoy, and !
guess that the bunch looked too
many" for the sub. They sighted an
| other one a few days later but ! lie
mt see that one as our squadron was
under quarantine for about two days
so we couldn't get out on deck. we
had TO stay in our quarters and then
It turned out that there were no
humps in our bunch at all, but we
sure were a "seasick bunch.
We came in sight Of the a OF
| Scotland about three days before
| Christmas, spent a day along the coast
OF Ireland and reached Liverpool Eng
land, Christmas eve We didn't land
until Christmas morning. Then we
marched through the city n took the
train about ten o'clock that evening
| for South Hampton. And talk about
a train and the speed Of 1t. IL was
some Joke and slower than any freight
that / ever rode on in the states. WEI
we rode all night and the next day and
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