The Vashon Island record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1916-1919, 1919-01-09
A. f. II. FRANCE
Noyemher u. 1915.

Dear Old Dad;
Well, dad, we have all been ask
ed to write an Xmas Victory let
ter TO our dads, so here goes.
Probably you would like to hear
the whole story from start to i'm
ish.
We left the dear old 4. $. on
July 18th, from New York, on Il
British transport, the Empress
Of Britain. We started out with
large convoy There were Il
transports and one cruiser. max
ing "l3n all told. Besides these
there were several destroyers, sub
chasers. one balloon and a hydro
plane. Our protectors all left-us
the second day out. with the ex-
ecpiion of the cruiser.
Well. il took us ID days to cross
We made zigzag course IN order
To throw of any subs that awaited
us so we didn't travel very fast
The voyage passed without much
doing. A few of the fellows were
Seasick, but IT didn't affect me.
For Tie first eight or nine days
it was awfully hot, aud / slept on
deck with nothing on but my un-
derwear Our quarters were down
below the water line, and, believe
me, it was hot down there.
Finally, two days out, we met
more destroyers, and they escort
ed MS clear into Liverpool.
We left the ship on the morning
of ihe 2sth and marched TO the
station, whore we rntrained for
southampton.
We sure saw some fine country
in England. Low, rolling Mills, all
green, and beautiful hedges ca
nails, with small, odd looking
steamships.
We passed through Birming.
ham, Oxford, and many other
large cities, and finally detrained
at Ramsey, about ten miles out of
Southampton. We remained at
Ramsey two days and rested. The
night before we left | did an all
night X. p. 1t wasn't very nice,
but anyway ] got fed up. The
next morning we started out for
southampton. Geel III never
forget that hike, with full packs
and sore feet. They said it was
only nine miles, but I'd swear il
was 20, Well, anyway, we finally
got there. That afternoon we got
on the Yale, ansAmerican ship
that used to travel between Sc
attic and Frisco. struck up an
acquaintance with "A sailor who
came from Seattle. and he gave
me his bunk for the night, and
believe me, | sure knocked off the
old sleep that night. When |
awoke in the morning we were
moored to the dock at Havre.
France. We stayed at an English
camp there for a day and half
and then took the train again. We
travelled for two days. The first
night we were some distance out
of Paris and were in an air raid.
1t didn't damage us any, tho. AT.
ter two days travelling we arrived
at Aix-sur-Vienne, a little village
eight miles west of Limoges. While
there we did a lot of hard train
ing. We dug gun pits, etc. We
got frequent passes to Limoges.
and that helped some-to spend
our money, anyway.
France, from what Eve seen of
ii, doesn't bat very high with me.
We stayed at Nix nearly three
months, then left for the artillery
range at La Courtine. We have
been here one month. 1t is an old
French camp. built for the Rus
slams at the beginning of the war.
1t is up in the foothills and is very
cold. We've had freezing weather
for week and a half. The range
Is about three miles out from the
barracks, up hill all the way. We
dug our pits and find on the range
just got through two days ago.
And now we have received orders
10 leave for Bordeaux and HOME.
Believe me, it sounds pretty good.
No, we haven't done any fight
ing, but it isn't our fault. We sure
were all anxious enough to see ae-
tion. SO, although we re not he-