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

Miss Doris Brand, 426 Lake street.
has received a long letter from her
friend, George Guthrie, Battery d.
121 Field artillery, A. P. O. 734,
France. Part of it follows:
Private George Guthrie, Battery d.
121 Heavy Field artillery American
expeditionery force, A. P. o. 734.
October II, 1918, Thursday
Daylight in the swamp, somewhere
at the front.
Dear friend Doris Just little note
while l have time to let you know
that | am well and hope this little
note reaches you the same. Well,
Doris, it is daylight in the swamp and
it's so foggy | can't see the kitchen
which is so feet from my tent You
can't imagine how the rain came down
all night. When l woke up this morn
ing and looked out of my tent there
before me was a running river and
our kitchen standing in the center OF
it.
l thought l would drop you few
lines and tell you Of my experiece
in getting up to the first front. re-
member it well. We were on the
move and started out at 10 o'clock in
the evening from camp. 1t was a fine
night, | remember but bit chilly.
We rode call night until 4\o'clock in
the evening, then we arrived at
French village. We hauled in there
to rest up. / was so tired / just
stretched out on the damp grass and
fell asleep. l woke up the next morn
ing thinking that we would have a
nice day of it but at four in the after
noon it started to get cloudy. Well,
Lieutenant P. E. Shea lined us up
and this is what he said: Boys, we
are going on famous expedition and
he told us what time we were going
to leave and laughed and so we laugh
ed with him. Well we got orders
to harness our horses at o'clock but
we were not to leave until IL bells
and you can imagine at bells it
rained pitchfOrks, and how it came
down. l did not mind it because l
am used to rainy weather.
Well, finally II o'clock came and
with Lieutenant Shea leading Us we
started for the train. Oh, yes! we
were going for a train ride! My hob
by is riding on the French box cars.
We had guns, horses, supply wagons,
caisons, etc. SO you can imagine how
long the column was. We rode un-
til 2 o'clock, then reached the en-
training place. Doris, you wouldn't
believe it but it was my first exper-
fence. | sat beside my horse wait
ing to load him in the car | watched
the night go and dawn arrive. Gee,
it was a long night but when o'clock
came we had our guns, horses, wag-
Ons, etc., all loaded and we were
waiting for the engineer who was hav-
ing a. drink of Ven rug or Red wine.
The French, you know sure like their
wine! Well, the train started. was
in the same car with my horse. OF
course there were four men in all to
each horse car and horses to a
car. We rode about an hour, then
the train stopped and we had to feed
the horses. Then we went for some
coffee and hard tack for ourselves.
You will notice the horses are fed
before the men. That's the army
style of it. l was we'll satisfied with
that meal and went back to the car
and sat there with my feet hanging
out the door, The train sped on, the
day was long and the sun was shin
ing bright | sure would have liked
to have stopped at places with cam
era and taken some pictures for there
was some wonderful scenery. Well,
bunk for ourselves. We opened a
bale of hay and spread it and when
we got tired we laid down and closed
our eyes. in slumber. l wasn't asleep
long when the horses started to snor
and paw for the hay / got couple
of good kicks, one in the ribs and
one on the shins, that put an end to
all hopes of me sleeping; so got up
and sat in the doorway. The only
sleep l go was one or two hours dur
ing the days when my bunkies were
sight seeing from the fast going train.
We rode three days and nights, so you
see we had horses to take care OF
three times a day during the trip and
it was something to keep us busy over
the road.
We were happy just the same. We
reached our destination about two
bells on bright sunny day. We un
loaded the guns first, then the wag
ons and then the horses. We landed
somewhere in France; but TIL know
if / ever get back home. Well, after
we got unloaded we saddled up anG
again we got started on 20 mile
hike l was surprised the way M
horse stuck it out and the same wa!
with the others. OF course we Away:
fed the horses good because they arr
the big factor on the long hikes w
take. We usually hike an hour ant
rest fifteen minutes, so you see 1t i
pretty slow travelling for us. W.