Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1919-01-24
ON ACTIVE SERVICE

son, R. e. Freemster written from
Belgium on the 27th Of Nov He is {
member Of the famous 91st Division
ana connected with the Reg!mental In
telhgence Section CT the 364th Inf.
Mrs. Norton's brother hos been de
corated with the French Croix d,
Guere..
Muelbeeke, Belgium, Nov. 81, 191,
Dear Mother:
Well here goes q letter for every
body, SO PASS 1t around for | may no
have chance to write again for some
time. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, bui
1t is just another day of the week to
US. We can now tell lots of things that
we could not tell before, 60 I'll give
you q little stuff tonight that may be
interesting.
We are now in Muelbeokc, Belgium,
and have been in Belgium about a
month and have gone over tie top
AA A-ihb t-iuc. we lOuHHI Lle
Fritzies and drove them frcIn Ypres
to Bruxceiles, Fighting in Flanders
hasen't been much but q grand foot
race, for that was the beginning of
the end Of the Germans and we had
them on the run all the time; however,
1t Is no joke when Jerry gets himself
planted over ridge and dumps about
hundred tons Of gas, schrapael, and
high explosives on us, before 1t gets to
hot for him and he has to dig out
again.
I'll go back to our first battle which
was really no fighting at all; 1t took
place two months and two weeks after
we left Camp Lewis. 1t was at St.
Mehiel. We were in reserve a few
miles behiad the front line where we
had to take all the Jerry's high ex-
plos!ves without being able to answer
him back We were there for a few
days dug in, awaiting orderc to re-
Neve the front line. But we got diff
ferent orders and another division took
our place, end We were Withdrawn and
moved into the famous Argonne Forest.
OF course you have heard OF the Ar.
gonne fight. That was US. We lay in
the Forest for four or FIVE days with
the famous 1Gt Prussian Guards fac
ing US over the most hilly, torn-up
1ungly forest that could possibly bt
Imagined. Exactly three months aftel
we left Camp Lewis, We put over a fiv,
hour barrage and at four o'clock II
the morning we went "over The top
with our own artillery barely clean
ing our heads; and say those old shell
sounded good even 1t they were hittin
trees and taking chips off the hi
where we were located, for by the tim
we were ready to- go over cur Bi
Be-thas were sweeping batteries o.
the map ten miles in advance of vi
We went up against the pick an
pride of the German Army, with thou:
ands of machine gun neSts hid ever
where. We hadn't more tkan gon
through our own wire either, befor
they began sheliing our road and m;
chine guns were sputtering out of tn
fog. Many poor fellow lost his If
in the fret five minutes. Well W
drove, dug captured and fought ther
back for nine kilomcters that cay, an
took thousand prisoners. Tha
night we dug in on Very Ridge. O
course you know that my section
the observers for the Regiment, whtc
means that with our big observer
telescope, we must keep tie Germa
front line under constant observation
and send back exact map coordinate
OF enemy batteries, machine gun nes
or strong points. also their front lin,
The first day we travelled SO fast tina
We could not establish an observatio
post (P. o. so that night our littl
section Of nine men and one lieutei
ant went out on "a reconnaissance patry
10 locate the enemy first line. W
were dug in on the rirge on a plal
and Jerry holding a dense wood, wit
mo Mans Land" about kilomet,
wide be,eween US for the night. o.
section started out at eleven o'cloc
p. NJ. but couldn't travel fast for Je
ry was shooting up lights and big flo-
er pots all the time. and when one
those things 20 up, It charges mig
into day for a minute or two. Aft,
several hours we got to where v
could hear the Boches moving arouI
in the underbrush. and so we decid,
II was time to 90 back. About hs
way back our hair stood on end. VIII
off to our left. we heard sudden
"help, help. Boches, Bochcs," then
shot and all was still. We drew o
automatics and carried them ready
action. Then one OF Jerry's big flo
er pot went of and we Topped a
took q look around but there W
nothing in sight, we went on 4