The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-01-02
Established in 1891.
NEWS OF THE THIRTIETH
ROBT. B. PLATT GIVES A BIRDS
EYE VIEW OF ITS RECORD.
Took 5000 Hun Prisoners.-Fought
For 10 Days Consecutiyely and
Lost One-third in Casualties.

Mr.. G. H. Plat, of Adams Run,
sends the News and Courier the fol-
lowing from his son, Robert B. PIatt,
which will be of intense interest to
every reader of this newspaper.
Young Platt is with the famous Thir-
tieth division, having been formerly
in the Charleston Light Dragons. In
this letter he tells something of the
experiences of this now celebrated
division, following its fortunes in a
general way from start to finish:
''Noy. "a, 1918.
'tMy Dear Dad: Will try and tell
you a little of what we have been do
ing since left home. Our trip across
the Atlantic consumed exactly twelve
days, the first four Of which were
marked by the quietness Of the ssea
and absence of any signs. Of subma-
rines, but later there came about a
great change. The sea got rough; we
received wireless messages Of Boche
submarines having been observed at
certain locations, Our course was
bent much, to the north where the
sea was still rougher and the re-
mainder of our trip was spent very
much mot at ease.' We landed at
Liverpool. From there we went
across the southern part Of England
to Dover where we boarded a channel
boat and crossed over to Calais,
France.
,"Our first life in France was spent
in little town called Nordqnsque,
where We, spent one month in the se-
,erest kind Of training for the task
in front Of us, and / can well say in
front of ms, because as you remember
Calais Wassat that time in imminent
danger Of being taken by the Huns.
After our training at this place we
moved up into Belgium, established
headquarters at little town known
as Watou where our division first
faced the enemy. We were all BIT
raw and perhaps a BIT excited but the
intelligence section found out that
the Germans were planning to aband-
on the historical KENNEL hill and the
ground just north Of it, so they let
us pull oil a little attack to spur
them. on This, as you know, was
entiTel :cessfuI, and we began to
feel that ne we're as good, If not bet
ter soldiers than the Germans. The
portion ofsthe lire we had was just
south Of the famous town of Ypres.
This town, by the way, is only mass
of rubbish, having been totally de-
stroyed by she'll fire.
after our relief in Belgium, we
were sent down to the third British
army for recreation and more train
ing. Then we were transferred on
still further down the line and afiI-
ated with the Fourth British army,
which is commanded by Gen. Rawlin-
son, Of whom much has been written
in the States. There was one Ameri-
can corps composed OF the Twenty
seventh and Thirtieth divisions, one
corps known as the Australian corps
composed wholly of Australians, and
in addition two British corps It is
with these people that we did our
noted fighting, breaking the Hinden-
burg line just north of st. Quentin.
The Thirtieth division alone took 81
900 German prisoners, advanced the
line of the Allies about thfrty-six
kilometers and fought with the ex-
ception Of two nights and one day,
for nineteen straight days without
stopping. How is that? During this
time we lost almost one-third Of our
division in casualties, so we had to
be sent back for a rest and refilling.
eve were assigned the area near
Amiens with Kerrien as our head
quarters, and we were at this place
when the wires announced to us that
the armistice had been signed. We
we're then relieved from duty with
the British and transferred down to
the American sector at LIE Mons,
about 100 miles southwest of Paris,
in little town known as Ballou.
when this letter reaches you
Xmas will be drawing near and it Is
my profoundest wish that both you
and all shall have the happiest Christ
mas day ever. It isn't impossible
but that I might blow in about that
time, but should I not be granted
that pleasure, be assured that I am
thinking of you and longing for the
day to hurry up when may again sit
down to the old table with Dad and
Mama.
every best love, always,
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