The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1919-01-24

to remind n that anything ever
grew there. Not a plant of any kind
grows there now, as every particle
of earth has been blown and reblown
into thousands of bits. Pieces of
shells, shrapnel, leather, hats, old he'll
NETS, skulls, buckles, old shoes and
boots and many other things that are
scattered around everywhere.
Verdun itself is only the remnant
of a wonderful city. The massive
walls of course are still there but not
a building in the city remains intact.
A window pane is an unusual sight
in this part of the country. The Ger
mans must have dropped millions of
shells in there. There was certainly
great loss of life on both sides and
the world is certainly happy that it is
all over
l do not know when l a come
home as we may be assigned to the
army of occupation.
/ wish you could have seen me at
the front. l certainly looked tough
for awhile. l did not have my clothes
off for three weeks and hadn't wash
ed my face for so long that l couldn't
remember when it was, and l was
muddy from head to foot. It's a great
feeling to wash up and get a good
nights sleep again. I have a room
in an old sanitarium and a big feath-
er bed and it is just like home so far
as sleeping goes, but that's all.
My throat is still a little Sol from
the gas but my arm is O. K. But
thank heaven it is all over and we
can now figure on coming home to the
best country in the world.
The boys who were prisoners in
Germany are the ones that are glad
to get back. They went through a
whole lot that the world will never
know about. talked with some Brit
ish soldiers at Verdun that had come
back and their stories were pitiful.
They were so starved that they look
ed like little sixteen year old boys.
l saw some Of the bread they were
issued for rations, and l think l could
have starved much easier than l could
have eaten it. Heavy, sour, black, and
it was hard to. tell Of what it was
made.
/ never saw such happy people in
my life as there are over here now,
and they certainly think a world of
the Americans, and the nearer to the
war zone the greater the feeling
They know more what war is there.
If everybody in the states could see
what four years of war does to a ma
ton they would appreciate more deep
ly the fact that the suffering has
stopped with the allies victorious. 1t
is a lot different reading in the pa
pers about an advance or a retreat
or an air battle; but when a person
gets first hand view behind the Genes
he has a different opinion. The bad
part Of the war is not in the bat
ties. Of course that has a lot to dc
with it but not all. The sacrifices
that the civil population have gone
through with are as great as the sac
rifices of the soldiers.
We held the south end Of the from
for about a month and a half, neal st
Die and Raon rEtape, in the Vosge'
mountains, and we got a good chance
to see what war does, as that territor!
had all been taken by the German
and retaken by the French. The shat
tered homes, the hundreds of littl
white crosses marking the graves o
both Germans and allies; the pale
, faced children, the Woodworking OIL
!, ladies and men and the dreary feeling
that a fellow has when he is up Their
: will never be forgotten by me.
. An the way the people have to live
( All the children carry gas masks to
! all the time was the fear that tn
Germans would drop a few gas she'll
Bombardment easements are every
where and at night not a beam {
= light can be seen. All motorcycle
automobiles and trucks would drive {
\ night without lights and that was r
j, small job in the mountains where tt
- roads wound around in almost ever
=. direction imaginable. All roads we
camouflaged as we'll as all mote
4 trucks. 1t is easy to imagine cond
tions when you know that St. Die
a city of about seventy thousand POI
~ ulation and imagine how the pop
70 lation would feel when the German
Il would start dropping shells or bomb
u Is it any wonder that the people a
l. happy?
=. CORP. IRA v. PACKARD,
10 3O6 Field Signal Battalion, A. E.