The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-10


 giant Big Berthas'' were wrecking havoc all through the town-glorious old Eerdun with it's towering hills all about defying for over four years the forces of the enemy. 1 was in Rheims just after the terrible days when the city had been shelled inces- sanity for weeks and weeks-beautf- ful old Rheims once the wonder city of France, with the great old Cathe- dral still standing strong and mas terful like a father watching over the devastated city.
 I saw where our American boys first baptized with their blood the fields of France. at Chateau Thierry and again at St. Mihiel. What wonderful days of American history, when our boys st Chateau Therry. with the enemy close to Paris. crossed the Marne ana drove the Hun back and back and l back until France was. saved. The French tell us that our Marines those days turned the tide of the battle and i saved France.
 ! wish you might have seen the beautiful and yet sad little cemeteries in this sector. where hundreds of our i boys now sleep. their resting places carefully tended by the good French. l folk. Perhaps some day some of you will make a pilgrimage along the 1 banks of the Marne and see where the battle was fought and where Americas best lie asleep today. 1 l have been on the lines when one l couldn't tell just where the trenches l were on account of the clouds of | heavy smoke and the burst of shells. l I have seen our boys going up ro tre 1 lines bright-eyed. expectant and brave, ! and I have seen them coming out tir- ! ed, tattered blood stained. They 1 have done wonderfully well! You should be so proud of them. The l French call them, with the Austral-
 ians the best fighters in the world. 1 As for the French soldier, the in i defatigable brave, beloved Poilu? He | is wonder! He goes into battle with | a song and ever ready to smile when | death is near.
 : And again the Australians and Ca nadians and Tommies, brave men all, l always ready to do or die. It is be- cause the right has been on their side and love of country and home strong
 within them that they fought so well and conquered.
 | And then again I have been in the hospitals, first at the Field Dressing Stations just behind the lines, then again at the Evacuation hospitals and | Base Hospitals some distance from the front.
 have seen the wounded brought in by hundreds carefully lifted from the ambulances and brought into the receiving station. Our boys brave in battle show their strength even more when wounded, and the wonderful | devotion of the doctors and nurses saves many of the serious cases. Heav- i en has blessed the nurse of the Amer 1 ican Red Cross. Kind, devoted sym
 pathetic. brave and a willing worker,
 she is more than nurse, she becomes
 a sort of mother to all the boys in her
 ward.
 Then, too, the Y. NJ, C.. A.. and
 Knights of Columbus to say nothing
 of the Salvation Army. You back home who have given them to us, will never know how much they have meant. Their huts become our homes
 their tents become our clubs, and as
 for the smokes and eats and maga-
 zines and movies and athletic equip
 ment and canteens and-well it's too much for me to say, but ask any boy
 in the olive drab with service stripes
 and wound stripes on his arm what
 he thinks of the Y NJ and K. c. and
 Sanies.
 l would so like to tell you of my
 many escapades in the air. Talk about
 exciting sport, just imagine little
 mission over the lines with "Archies"
 tAnti-Aircraft) Flaming Onions'
 tHun bombs shot at our planes) and
 Hun planes-Fokkers, Hanovers,
 AViticks, Halberstadts and others fry
 ing to break up a squadron forma-
 ton. The "Archies' and Onions"
 don't bother much, but the Hun sure
 has some good fighting planes and
 many of our fine pilots have gone
 vest in the battles with the enemy.
 But censorship won't permit me 10
 tell all and l am reserying some won-
 derful stories for you to tell if I ever
 get back.
 Well 10 continue, was transfer
 red to the Experimental Division of
 the Air Sereyice where we try out new schemes and new. planes. The
 Colonel must have had a grudge
 against me, for I was assigned to take charge of all parachute work. , Dropping with parachutes out of a balloon is good fun. but my work is mostly with airplane parachutes. | and many bad spill I have had. but strange to say I am still alive. How , ever, I am getting wiser every day
 now, for instead of dropping out of the planes myself to try outiexl@para: | chute, I throw overheard a sand bag manillin that have made 10 look like Kaiser Bill. And the funny part of ! 1t is that the para chutes always open ' and Kaiser Bill" stands the droI very nicely. The sensation of drop = ping out of plane is most disagree 3 able, but I have always felt that if the l chute" didn't open and I hit the
 ground there wouldn't be enough blot , ting paper in France to pick me ur } thence my manikin. Kaiser Bill" I wish I could tell you more of my 2 work and my experiences in France r I wish ! might tell you of the wonder l full days after the armistiee was sign
 ed, when for days all France went { ablaze with enthusiasm; crowds I thronged the streets; Paris went mad with joy, and our soldiers and the Poilus and the Anzacs were hailed with joy. For three days none work
 ed in France and Paris, the quiet and reserved, saddened by war became l the Paris of old-bright, gay and joy ous.
 } And now as I write, our armies are | marching forward to occury Alsace- Lorraine and then to the Rhine Dc i; you remember the song. Its Iona 5 way to Berlin but we'll get there.''