New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-01-08
NEW ULM SOLDIER
WINS DECORATION
Continued from page ~

'sWell, anyway we got it and I sa,
we sure earned it. l suppose you won ,
believe it when 1 tell you I never car
ried gun all thru the war and las
spring when we We're up to the from
for the first time not one in my compan,
had a gas mask, and we were working
only about four or Ave miles from the
first line trenches. That was our intro
duction into this war on Easter Sun
day. Our second trip to the front was
not so bad as we had gas masks and We
had use for them too That time was
Just before the final drive into the
forest Of Argonne. You will remem
Der reading in the ''Stars and Stripes y
about the tanks at Argonne. Well
every one Of them came from our camp
We sure did work that time.
''You ought to see some Of the dug
out up at the front. You can t imagine
them unless you see them. Some of
them are all cement, just like houses,
only underground, electric lights, hot
and cold running water, bath room, and
in some of them the Germans even
had pianos, Photographs, and bar
so they could dish out beer You can
see the Kaiser did not expect to leave
80 soon. | could write all afternoon
hnnt tboco S,,+
writing in bed so I will wait until I
rolne home to tell you.
~ can't afford to take a fnrlough
because [ am almost broke now My
last trip cost me almost $40 for five
days. Can't tell you all about my fur
toughs now, us secrets better not be
sent by mail. l have seen England,
Franco and Italy, about 1900 miles
around here so l am seeing some coun-
try.
81 see that you celebrated peace
November 8. | guess that was three
days early but you were not the only
ones to make that mistake. We did
the same thing here. You see, the Ger
mans wanted peace all right but some
Of their pig headed officers were going
to try to get thru our lines at the last
moment, but [ guess they sure are con
vinccd now. Down at camp we knew !
peace was coming because we had a
wireless outfit and got our news direct |
from the front and on the last trip to |
the front we could see that it would be !
our last drive because the Germans
were all in, so after we fixed up the !
left it to the dough boys and they sure
lid trim them III fine shape. Just |
imagine, they fought right up to the
last minute, Ii clock was the time set !,
to quit fighting, and they did, right on
the dot. Seems funny to think of it, |
fellows getting killed the last five !
minutes when they knew that if they |
could last just those five minutes it ;
would mean home for them. But then, |
SuCn Is war. we can De thankful IL is
all over. 49,.
But, then. such is war. We can be
thankful it is. all over.
|'You sure must have had some cele
bration, but then so did we. 1 wish yon
could have seem our camp the morning
after the night before. 1t looked as if
a cyclone had gone thru it and our
captain did not show up until two days
later, SO / guess they had their time of
It too ...
- did not get to- see Jesse Olson
tho / believe I was in the town where
he stayed Blois, about $50 miles from
here. No danger that Carl will have to
20 on training. They will have to get
out of the camps so we have some place
to stay when we get back. Guess he can
s4,end Christmas at home all right.
Yes, there will be quite a lot OF the
soldiers staying here, for duty along
the Rhine and other military service
e,hances are, too, that a lot of the boys
viii stay here to work but that is volun
tary service. I won't be one of them,
The u. S. is good enuf for me. -
A later letter said that Walter was
Still in the same hospital and he was
just as cheerful as ever, he knew no
more about getting back than in the
luttnre uuotp6