Abilene weekly reflector., 1919-01-02


Later his pilot was taken prisoner
by the Germans and held at Muulsh
where he was treated very royalty
until the end Of the war. On one oc-
casion German intelligence officer
took him up into a private room and
treated him to wines and champagne
hoping to get him drunk and get in
formation from him concerning his
squadron. Strange, to say his plan
did not work, for the German officer
himself became drunk and forgot
himself, The pilot was confined to
four days Imprisonment.
or the 40 who were In the 96th
squadron, 2S were captured by the
Germans, six are instructing In avia-
tion and the remainder are either
wounded or killed.
@ ~ ~
Sergt. Curtis A. Brewer. Co. II, 353
Inf, Sath Division, writes his father,
]. E. Brewer, under date of Decem-
ber 3: The censorship will now Der-
NIT me to write you more freely than
heretofore. / want to tell you a little
about the big battle was in. Have
been to the front lines number of
times, had many thrilling experien-
ces and narrow escapes. Our divis-
Ion and company was In the great
st. Miheil drive, early In September.
Our company entered the drive with
nearly full quota of men, 23S, and
came out with only 1873; the bal
ance wounded and killed. Our boys
fought valiantly, and while the losses
were heavy we gained the victory
and routed the Huns. inflicting very
heavy losses on them and taking
many prisoners, most of them seemed
glad to be captured. We went "over
the top" Sept. 18th, at Thiancourt,
with rush. 1t was an exciting time
with thrills enough to last lifetime.
ion held the front line from Than
court over to BuliOnville directly In
front OF Metz. The big guns roared
and Fritz knew we were there, how
ever, he was not idle and gave us
no little trouble, especially at night,
he never let night pass without
shelling our lines. ! was placed In
charge of detail Of so to 100 men,
the last seven days, doing special,
dangerous work at night. The work
required exposure to the German
guns and we lost from one to five
men each night.
One night they turned bunch of
machine guns on us, but we were
prepared and not much damage was
done, the following night they sent
out large patrol In an effort to sur
round us, we saw them coming and
gave them particular hell, mighty
narrow escape however.
Several evenings, the German bar
rage and shell fire was so violent that
we had to throw ourselves down and
hunt the trenches, shells dropping all
around us, with flares going up max
ing the country all around as light
as daylight enough to read the
Abilene Refector-some laundering
roar and fireworks thrilling In the
extreme--but wonderfully hard on
the boys and their nerves. For four
teen long days and nights | did not
remove my clothing or shoes, with
very little sleep, night or day, ex
pecting nearly every minute to be
the next one bumped Off. Not a
very pleasant feeling, assure you,
but fortunately / came out without
n scratch
In this drive | captured one Of the
famous German Prussian guard Of
ficers, a very much pufred up fel-
low, who was wearing guard helmet
made of patent leather, trimmed with
plenty Of brass. ! gently" relieved
lim Of that piece Of head wear and
I'M sending 1t home by mail; could
sell 1t for $40 but want it for a
had occasion TO pass over dead
mans curve" made famous all over
he world by such frightful losses
,nce is enough for horrible, be-
1ond description.
The s9th Division covered itself
Ill over with glory in the st. Mihiel
lriye, as well as the other battles
u which the division took part, and
am proud to be member Of 1t.
rhe work Of the division showed
borough preparation and reflects