The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1919-02-20
HAD SPORT WATCHING
THE AIRNtN FIGHT
Before the Armistice, Emery f.' TT
Was in the Thick of the FRAY

A couple of interesting. s RS
were received by Mr.. and Mrs ~ E.
Hiatt, of Kelso, Wash. from their
son Emery Hiatt, who is still with
the A. Z. F. in France. The frst
/ letter was dated Oct. 4, a little yer
a month before the hostilities ceased,
and from this We see. that Emery
was in the midst Of hard fighting,
with everything moving as though
the war would not end for months to
come. Because of the censorship,
Emery did not state just where he
was located, but it is indicated that
be was right up to the very front.
Speaking of his situation, Emery
saws:
This is a pretty good place. We
have all kinds of sport watching the
air battles. Already today we have
got seven of old Fritzs planes in this
Immediate vicinity, and should get
three or four more before night.
This war will soon break Fritz, try
ing to supply cur aviators with ma
aaines to bring down. The Ameri-
cans are certainly good aviators and
90 after all Of the B2che machines.
Fritz dropped a few shells in
around US, wounded one of our men
and killed a Frenchman and a few
Annex, and one came close enough to
me to knock me over and I was
rather fiighty for several hours. One
of the boys just said Hiatt you are
going to loose your horseshoe some
of these days"
At the time of writing this letter,
Emery was OK The second letter,
dated at Amity, France, Dec. 2S,
1918, gives an interesting account of
his movements, and we give it in full
At last we moved from the sea of
mud at Brocourt, to another just as
bad at Amity, which is about nine
kilometers from Gondacourt, or
about six miles. Amity is a wee
petit place, with one store, or what
the Frogs call a store town mayor,
and a public wash house. Every town
in France (large or smalD has a
public wash house, where a mob of
French Madams can be seen any time
paddle in one hand and brush in
the other, and dabbling in water
that is about freezing
At Brocourt the morning we left
we had reville at a. m, breakfast
at 4:30 and rode to Froidos in
trucks, arriving about $50 and had
our guns and material all loaded by
$50 but didn't leave until 1920
a. m, and it took us until 800 a.
m. next morning to reach ROmange
which was not a great distance from
where we started. Owing to the
amount of traffic we were held up
for quite a while, and at one place
l think we laid on the side track for
five or six hours. Two hours after
we landed at Romange we were un-
loaded and had breakfast which con-
sisted of two pieces of bread and a
cup of coffee. At daylight we started
a long and tiresome march for
Amity, which was eighteen kilome-
ters away or about twelve miles. Ow-
ing to the fact that We were not used
to such long hikes and besides wore
rubber boots and carried heavy roll
over our backs, when we reached
Amity only about half of the bunch
that left Romange were able to
walk. l managed to make 1t with
pack and all but my feet were so
badly blistered when | got through
that | could hardly walk the next
day This was the day before
Christmas and the prospects for a
merry Christmas certainly looked
pretty slim.
Our meals on Christmas were the
same as usual | spent all day
Christmas in bed trying to keep
warm as it sure was cold in the old
barn we were billeted in 1t showed
Christmas eve and most of Christmas
day but just today it moderated and
begun raining, and is still at it and
the snow is all gone now, but we
have mud enough to make up for the
snow.
There is all kinds of dope iying
around. Some say we 60 to Russia,
others say to the Rhine, while some
say the next move will be to Bres
to take the transport, and as for me
7 ,,,,fNr lottor