Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-03-26
ARTHUR LEE
IN GERMANY
Son of MIR. and Mrs. Lars Lee, OF
GienwOod Township, Sends an
Interesting Letter to Hs
Cousin AdOlph Lee
OF FIGHTING SAID
He HAD PLENTY
Spent 75 Days on the Front, and Had .
Lot of Excitement. Was ON
the st. Mihiel and Argonne
Meuse Fronts.
Oberbettingen, Germany
Feb. 22, 1919


Feb. 22, 1919
Dear Cousin:
This is Washington's birthday and
am going to make an attempt at
letter writing. have been a poor
correspondent but have had reason
for being being so. While We were
on the front we were kept so busy
with the Huns that We found little
time for writing and after the armis-
tice We hiked so long and far that
we could not find time to write. How
ever l am going to make an attempt
to redeem myself and write you a
long letter.
suppose you wonder how it
comes that l am writing you with a
machine from this forsaken coun-
try over here. Well you see it is this
way. | am at present working in the
orderly room with the company clerk
helping him keep the company's
books straight. This is the greatest
gold brick" job l have had in the
army. | have almost nothing to do
save sit in this room near the fire
and look wise. l hope that / can
hold this Job till l start for home
which by the way hope will be
soon.
or lighting l had all I wanted. T
spent about 70 days on the front
and will say that I found that it
was about IS days too much. l had
a lot of excitement those days tho.
Our outfit was on two fronts. The
st. Mihiel and the Argonne-M Meuss
front. l suppose you read in the pa
pers about the drive at st. Mihiel on
the 18th of September. At five o.
clock that morning we went over the
top for the first time We had the
trenches on that front for about
three weeks before we went over.
Then We became tired of looking at
those never ending trenches and the
wire entanglements i'm No Mans
Land and went over after them, and
drove the enemy out. On the 18th
We went over after them again and
again on the 10th. Then we stopped
and dug in. We sure saw some hard
days on that front after going over.
We found our packs too much of an
encumbrance when going thru the
wire so we simply threw them away.
This We soon regretted for we now
had no clothes to protect ourselves
with against cold and rain. We did
not even have rain coat. The Ger
mans left some blankets behind and
some of the fellows were lucky en-
ough to get hold of some of these.
For three days we had nothing to eat
save what the Germans had left be-
hind. We lost lot of men dead
and wounded, but more went to the
hospital. sick than men suffering
with wounds. 1t rained incessantly
and lying on the wet ground with
out anything to protect ourselves
was enough to get anyone's health.
1t did not seem to affect me tho for
felt fine during the whole drive. I
am beginning to think that must
have been tough. Well l guess the
thot we had done so
we'll that they thot they would give
Us chance on another 'front.' so
hey took us up to the Argonne-
Meuse front. Before I got thru with
hat front l began to realize that
sherman was right. The artillery
ire on that front was something ter
'ible. Incessant fire night and day
md quite a bit of gas. Every day
cost us more men but, we kept right
IN going. The morning OF the 18th
'ound me lying in little hole on
he front line peering out over No
Mans Land, wondering what was
going to develop next.
One hour later.
Have now had supper and prepar-
I'd my morning report.
Well while 1 was watching for
urther developments the good news
became current that the armistice
vas signed and was to take effect at
eleven o'clock. Believe me I hugged
hat hole until eleven o'clock. The
big guns kept up an incessant fire
until the last minute. 1t seemed as
ho they wanted to finish up all their
so that they would not
nave so much to "lug" around after
The war was over. Well finally the
iring did cease and then you should