The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1919-01-02
LYNDEN BOY DESCRIBES HIS
TRIP TO FRONT IN FRANCE

TRIP TO FRONT IN FRANCE
Lewis Tromp Of Lynden describes
in letter received this week his
trip from Washington to the French
Front.
He writes as follows:
This is supposed to be the biggest
camp in France. l don't know exact
ly where it is. but it is days jour-
ney by slow French boxcars from
Limoges, in a north and east direc-
tion. 1t is about 5000 feet high
and in a rough hilly country. There
is a big artillery range here. We are
on eight-inch guns and have fired
both them and the 75s.
A year ago last September a Rus
sian army was in here and they mu-
tinted. A Frenchman told me all
about it. They turned battery OF
field guns few kilometers away on
the officers quarters, now the Y. M.
c. A. building and blew several holes
in it and also wrecked a few build
ings down in the town. But the real
fight came when a detachment from
the front was sent up and stOrmed
the barracks. The concrete walls
are just spotted around the windows
where the bullets hit. The mutin-
eers lost though, and there are four
thousand of them lying six feet from
the top of a nearby hill.
AS you probably know we left Ca
sey June 13. l was in train section
13 and there were 13 cars in the
section. We left Camp Mills July
IS and boarded the English ship.
Empress of Britain. There were 13
ships in the convoy and it took us
13 days to cross. 1t seems like we
sailed north and south more than we
did east. Sometimes it seemed like
we were on the equator and again
it felt like the North Pole. We had
only one submarine fight and our
collier sank one sub. l didn't count
them but l think there must have
been 13 in the bunch. There were
about 5000 men on our boat. She
had always carried Canadians before
and | guess we kind of shocked the
cockneys who ran her for one Of
them said, "Hit seems SO QUAR-, dom
cher know, why them bloomin' Ca
nadians were right down hon their
knees a prayin' and ere these bloody,
blinkin' Yankees go runnin' haround
ha yelling, When do we heat.
The worst of it was Dad, we didn't
eat and l slept on a bench ORION the
deck floor and as for that letter l
wrote while on board, telling about
the swell boat, we'll, l had to write
What and really think have some
sense of humor after all, when l stop
and think about it. But I suppose l
shouldn't talk about the old boat,
because she is resting peacefully on
the bottom of the ocean, God bless
her, having fallen prey to the sub
marine on the second day OF her re-
turn trip. Well, we dOcked at Liv-
erpool July 90. The next morning
we marched a couple of miles thru
the city to the depot and boarded a
train. The train carried us thru the
heart of England, passing thru Bill
Shakespeare's home town as well as
many large cities. After a six hour
continuous ride, we landed at Rom
sew, a little village about eleven miles
from South Hampton. This was an
English camp. We had delicious
we'll dried bread and tea for supper
and slept on comfortable board
floors. We had a couple OF days to
wash and clean up and on Monday
the 29th we marched the IL miles
to South Hampton. 1t sure was hot
I threw my pack on a scale there Just
for fun and it weighed eighty7siS
pounds. We boarded the Yale and
pulled out at s P. M. We slipped by
the subs again and in the morning
were lying at dock in Havre. We
spent one night in that city and
then pulled out in boxcars landing In
Alike August 2. This is just an out
line of my trip to France and now we
hear we are to embark for the U. s
at once. At least we will leave this
place in a few days and it may be