The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-01-18
SIGNALING BY FLASH
AND SOUND IN FRANCE
Arthur F. Amsdon, 2eth Engineers,
Had Narrow Escape in Last
Allied Offensive Of the War


village, A portion of the. letter fol-
lows:
Dear dad The - censorship has
been lifted and | will accordingly en-
/ deavor TO give you 4 brief outline OF
my travels and experiences over here
We left Newport News, Va, August
IA, and arrived at Brest August 20.
The first and last days were the most
trying and nervous because the u
boats had been active off the coast OF
Virginia and on the other side the
course was through the danger zone
Our ship was the Queen OF Neither
lands that had recently been taken
over frem the Dutch. She proved 10
he slower than the other transports
and constantly Jagged behind This
caused us much anxiety for the reason
that any ship that loses the bunch is
picked for attack by the U.boats.
Our bunch of men was selected for
watch both on deck and in the crows
nests. had to watch frcm the for
ward crows nest and felt that had
very responsible job. j had strong
glass and on clear days could see for
eight or ten miles. We sighted one
submarine, or thought we did, but 1t
did not attack u.s. We made narrow
escape from floating mine-twenty
feet The last four days we took
every precantion against attack and
had hardly moment free from ankle
1 ty. Every half hour we changed our
course and skirted the coast Of Porttk
gal until we arrived at our destina.
ton
The third morning before our ar
rival we came on deck TO find that we
had six more destroyers with us that
had come up during the night On
Sunday. August 25, we sighted the
outer lighthouses of Brest just at
dusk. Cries of Land went up on
every side and We began to breathe
freely again and to relax from the
long tension Of the voyage.
Monday morning they kept<twenty
OF US ON board and sent the remainder
OF the men TO rest camp at Brest.
The lieutenant told us we had been
picked for special duty as We had
proved that we could be trusted. so
we expected something good We
we're looking forward to first class
feed and at night were served with
one cracker and one herring We
camped in an open field in our pup"
tents for two days and mixed con.
crete at the barracks. These bar
racks were in existence in Napoleon
day and they are immense stone build
ings There is guillotine here and
a tunnel three miles long to the sea
The next day We marched to the
railroad yard and boarded cars We
were delayed on our journey but fin
ally pulled up at ls-Sur-Lille near
Lijon. We had Travelled almost
across France to the Switzerland Dor
der, $50 miles in five days and nights.
At 10 o'clock at night we were taken
to Red Cross station and served
with bread and coffee. Standing al
the counter pouring coffee was q
beautiful red-cheeked American girl
She had smile that just reached our
hearts and we realized that with the
food she served went love and sym
pathy. No one knew how long she
had been standing there or how tired
| she was. But her smile restored our
courage and we felt like kicking our
selves for growing the way we had
during the past few days, Then We
rushed back to our cars singing and
whistling; all because of smile and
a word of cheer.
Fifty miles further north We reach
/ ed Langren where we detrained ant
marched to barracks about mile
from the station. The city stands OF
, high hill. AS we approached
imagined that We we're going to CAM
. in an old castle. Instead we fount
that we had reached a considerable
! city entirely surrounded by double
walls and three meats, an ancien
town with any amount of history at
!, tached to il. There is a portion o
!, the wall that dates back TO the day
!. OF the Roman invasion in the frs
: century.
] The next day we had bath and
, change Of clothing. Here we spent
: month IN what IL caiieu d i Iasn ai''
Sound school our STUDIES cohs sis'
7 in instruction to locate the position
. of enemy guns. was put ln,o w
Flash section OF the second BATTALION aoi
About october IL we wen. 10 lou
and at noon we loaded ourselves IN.
some ammunition trucks and move
d nearer the 'front.' our gas i,asNs "ea
y tested ana we put on our heiihe,s' ou
Ia travelling WAS SLOW because Oh III