The L'Anse sentinel., 1919-02-14
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY IA, 1919
LETTERS FROM OUR
BOYS over THERE

Russell Bouchard of Lake Linden
has received the following letter from
his brother, Sergt. Joseph A. Bou-
cifard, now in France, and it is pub
Eshed by request, the Bouchards being
former Baraga residents. ~
Dear Brother:-Just few lines to
let you know that ! am o. K.,--very
much SO. believe today has been the
biggest day in my life, a day will
never forget as long as live. Some
time back was recommended for d.
S. c., or Distinguished Service Gross,
and we were decorated today. may
as well start at the beginning and tell
you all about it. We were on Hill No.
Z95, about one and one-half miles from
the front lines. had charge Of our
ammunition dump. Our force con-
sisted OF captain, two corporals, and
twenty-five men. Our dump was in
plain sight Of the Germans and we ex-
pcrienced heavy shell fire, also gas
several times. They were evidently
trying for our dump. All we handled
was infantry ammunition and 37M
(these are our pound shells used in the
front line trenches), also stoke bombs,
large explosive thrown from the
front line. We had also large sup
ply of rockets Of different sizes and
eolors which were used for signal pur-
poses. The rockets are used between
infantry and artillery. II the Ger
mans made an attack on our trenches
cur dough boys would shoot up their
rockets of certain colors for barrage
and other colors on where to shoot.
Now, as sergeant, was in charge of
this ammunition dump and had to see
that all orders were filled and keep up
compile cLeck on all that is used and
received and submit it to headquarters
twice a day, which did. Some times
I caught little sleep and sometimes
! didn't. was working night and
day. Had to do it, as was the only
commissioned officer who under
staod the different kind Of ammuni-
ton.
remember three or four instances
where there would be from fifteen to
twenty trucks in with ammunition
thas must be unloaded at once and a
couple of doughboys' outfits from the
front lines after fresh supply and it
all had to be checked in and out. Well,
the old squareheads would start send
mg them over and after couple of
shells landed around the dump my
guard of jugglers would start for a
dugout, but was sergeant and had to
stay there, and l did. Well, one day
the old boy put shell right in the
center of our rocket supply. One man
was killed and several wounded. The
rockets started shooting and finally
went up in blaze. Now our rockets
weru next to our grenades and the
rockets kept shooting into the gren-
adcs and soon started them burning,
that is, the canvas and boxes in which
ehsy are slowed Now this ammuni-
ton was pretty valuable, so the cap
tain called for volunteers to 60 down
and fight the fire. Four of us went
down and pulled off the canvas and
the boxes that we're burning and threw
them into the nearest trench and COW
cred them with dirt, and all the while
Fritz was sending them over. guess
tiny saw the smoke and thought it
was pretty good target. At any
yate, we saved the hand grenades,
which, we found out later, were very
necessary in the capture of Beaucoup,
France, as the doughboys said that
they would have been handicapped
without them. The captain took our
nsmcs and sent them to headquarters
snl Friday was decoration day for the
Ssh division and there were fifty that
were decorated. The whole division
uss mobilized at Esch. We had four
regiments of infantry 9th, Goth and
Sikt); three regiments of artillery(19,
10th and 21st); one Of Engineers
(the nh; besides the trains sanitary,
zmunition and supply.
There were four. hands i'm the diyis