Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1919-01-10

| give Us ab LEASb Que RUUu bIalu
each way a day. When the war
was Oh we made no kick on any
thing, but we sure have a kick
coming now.
| LETTER FROM FRANCE
Continued from page 81
open my Christmas (9X3X4) box
from you I'll find some candy inside,
am glad you attended the fair while
lin Memphis and saw the "bird men.
| read with a smile what you had to
say about their stunts in a sham bat.
tie. Mamma, I have seen lots and
lots Of air battles. / have seen them
shot down by machine guns thous-
ands Of feet in the air, have seen
them fall in flames, seen them crash
together, have seen the pilots leap to
safety in parachutes and every other
thing. | on one occasion saw more
than two hundred planes engaged in
the same fight and | saw eight Ger
man machines brought down and
not a single allied one,
This is great sport watching them
down the "Boche'. Now to fiirt
with the censor little and try to
tell you a few Of the things have
been through in the last month and
half. You will then know why |
haven't written to you. On October
7th we were ordered to make our
combat packs, we all knew what was
coming. Well we made our packs
and were soon on the march, and /
remember all along the way Of hear.
ing the men wishing each other luck,
telling each other their home address,
es, and expressing the hope Of see--
ing each other the next morning,
ETC., but am sorry to say that many
Of them will never see home and
their friends again. We marched for
two or more hours, or until about 3
o'clock A. NJ, when we were halted
for few minutes rest. About A
o'clock our captain came to me and
told me that we were to make an at
tack at daybreak He told me what
our detectives were and where my
position was and told me to take my
section and move off to position. /
did as 7 was told. | haven't seen the
captain since. He is in hospital with
three bullet wounds. Well at s
o'clock just as it was getting light the
order came down the line to advance
Tower the top" No one will ever
be able to tell what those three words
mean, no one will ever be able to tell
what one has to endure, it can't be
done.
| can only say it is the most ter
rible thing on earth. 1t was our task
TO drive the Germans from Hill No.
$780, We did but we had an awful
time doing it. With their artillery
firing upon us with open sights all
,alibre of shells from three inch to
ten inch, with hundreds of machine
guns laying barrage that seemed al
most impossible for any man to go
through. For four days and nights
we fought without any let up, always
driving the boche ahead Of us, only /
once did we have to give any ground, I
and then it was only few hundred
yards. The Huns started a counter
attack and it became so hot that our
had to withdraw. / found
myself in an extremely dangerous
position. had my machine gun
in shell hole along the side
of the hill with only one man left to
oad the gun for me. All the rest of
my section ZIG in number) had either
been killed or wounded. The Ger
mans were only about a hundred and
fifty yards away and still coming
when my loader was killed by bull
et through the breast. / was alone
and couldn't operate the gun fast
enough by myself, and l knew /
would either be killed or taken pris-
,ner, neither of those things appeal
ID to me, so | quickly decided to
cave my gun and if possible get back
% safety and the rest of my company.
never expected to get through the
1arbed wire entanglements and off
he crest of the hill without being
hot down and don't see to save my
life how | ever did. it. Before leav-
ng my gun | stripe it so the Ger
rams couldn't turn it upon US. / am