Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-01-02

Cheeks hill, has received the follow
ing letter from his son:
Gutenberg, November "a, 1918.
Dear Father:
This being Dads Day, will write
few lines. Our mail is no longer cen
sored, so can write little more than
before.
We left the states, as you probably
know, on the 10Th of last January, and
sailed on the liner Aeolus, which car
ried about $500 troops. We had
one quite severe storm on the, way
over, and sailed into the harbor OF
Brest, France, on the 18th Of Febru'
airy. From there we went by train to
the town of Champlittle, which is in
the west central part Of France. We
landed there on the 23rd February.
We then split up in details of from
twenty to thirty men each and weat
to different towns on construction
work. We put up. barracks, stables,
lighthouses and hospitals, and did
some road work.
On the 9th Of Ma. 4 we' were NIB
ilized at Hummes and were prepared
for the front. We were issued steel
helmets and gas masks, and had gas
drill for few days. On the 31st we
were informed that we were not go
ing to the front, so we went back on
construction work again until the 18th
of June, when we were again mob
lied at Core. We left there on the
25th for Alsace. We went by train
through Belfort asd arrived at Faux
werlen on the evening OF the 9th.
Here we got our first taste of war.
Although that was a very quiet front,
we had bunch of artillery right be-
hind our camp and the shells were
whistling over our heads nearly all the
time. We also had several gas
alarms, but they proved to be false
alarms. Here we also saw our first
airplane battles, which were very
small ones, only two or three planes
at a time. We left there on the Goth
Of July and went to Chateau-Thierry
Arriving at that place on the 28th
W at once hiked to the Uses, which
were only few miles distant. Here
we had real war; shelled all day
and night and then add to that air
raids at night when they drop bombs
right and left; also few real gas
attacks. One night / wore my mas
for over four hours without taking
it off. Here we had quite a few OF
our men wounded, mostly by shell
fire. Here we also went three nights
to Fesmes to build a bridge across
the Vesle river, which was at that
time in between the Americas and
German lines. Fired at with artil-
lery, machine guns and gas shells,
wa had an interesting time. We left
that front on August 10 and moved
back a short distance for rest.
During this rest we had several
night air raids. From there we again
went to the front is the SCISSORS re-
gion, arriving there on August II.
This was not as exciting as the last
front for us, because we were not the
front line company. Here we saw
from twenty TO forty planes were
real airplane work Squadrons of
from twenty to forty phases were COM
mon and the German planes did not
show UP much except at night on
bombing trips. We left there on the
9Th of September and moved way
back of the lines for another rest,
which proved to be short one. We
left again on the 18th for the Verdun
front, where we put in a double hitch
as the frost line company. We left
there on the 30th and went back for
few days.
: We went up to the same front
again the 9Th Of November, and stayed
there till the 10Th. During this time
of course hostilities ceased, so we
had few days of rest. On the 18th
we started on our hike behind the re-
treating Germans on our trip to the
Rhine river / wrote a letter few
udyS dSO Jul CA4P Oko AdA
as we had gone, so will not repeat it.
We are now nearly through the prov
ince of Luxembourg, within six miles
of the German border. It is quite a
hard march, but 1 guess we will live
through it all right, considering what
we have already gone through.
1t is getting pretty cold now, freeZ-
ing ice every night-but we usually
have pretty good places to Sleep, so
it is not so bad as it m ght be.
We all hope to be back home be-
fore the end of winter, and think we
will the way everything looks right
now Hoping this finds you all in
good health and hoping to hear from
you soon, I am,
Your son,
CORP. LOUIS M. SCHULTZ.
Co. F lot U. S. Engrs. Am. r. F.