The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-02-14
LETTER FROM IRA HALTiWAN-
GER.
Morreal, Germany,

Morreal, Germany,
Dec. 13, 1918.
Dear May: First, l wish to ex-
press my appreciation for the little
book and leafet, Sayings and Songs
for Soldiers" and '"The Christmas
Story" The book is very valuable.
especially to one who has been ac-
customed to limitless supply Of re-
iigious literature. There are others
that enjoy them, too.
Who would have thought year ago
today l would be within 20 miles OF
the famous Rhine? Yet here am and
/ suppose l am going farther and stay
awhile. There are many interesting
things to be seen, but army life is not
favorable to sight seeing. We travel
all right but stop only where we have
business and move a good deal at
night. There is little daylight here at
this season anyway. Then again the
sun has not appeared from behind the
clouds for more than ten minutes since
we crossed from Luxemburg into Ger
many at 9:22 q. m, December 3. This
is our third stop in Germany. | don't
know how many more moves we will
make nor how long our stay will be-
I have seen service on two import
ant sectors of the battle line IN
France. have endured several va
rieties of living conditions during and
since then. In some respects our pres
ent experience is more disagreeable
than war time. We are on enemy ter
ritory now and feel like rockies again.
!. We landed at Brest, France, May 80,
1918. In a few days we entrained for
Saint Nazaire where we stevedored
for about a week. Then we crossed
France to hamlet called Houdelain-
court. The company stayed there
from June s to July Is just resting
and drilling, waiting for the call. I
left there with twenty-nine comrades
on June "a to take a course at
French motor school. l rejoined my
organization at Boutiqny near Chat
eau-Thierry July 81, three days after
the famous counter offensive by the
French and Americans, an operation
that turned the tide of war and ended
German offensives. I then went to
Versailles for motor trucks and re-
turned to go into action Immediately,
hauling ammunition to the fast ad-
vancing American troops. Until about
the goth of August saw my comrades
only in passing. Some of them I did
not catch glimpse of for three weeks.
Very little sleep and less eating for
those on duty there.
Along around the 10th of Septem-
Der we left this sector to the French
and thereafter operated on the Verdun-
Argonne sector. On September 26. We
started pushing the Germans and have
followed them to this point. That is
a brief summary of my service at the
front
Our business has been to put am
munition and supplies where they
were most needed. Primarily we are
an ammunition train, supposed to haul
powder and projectiles from railroad
station in the rear to a dump within
reach of the caissons. In emergencies.
when big advances were made, it was
necessary TO go right up to the guns
with our load. We have experienced
visits from bombing planes and were
in constant danger from shell fire
along roads and around dumps. Then
at night your rest was apt to be dis
turbed by the whirr of aeroplane mo-
tors and terrific intonations from ex-
ploding bombs. That is, when you
were able to get night Of Most of
our work was done at night to escape
observation. 1t sure is fun to drive
truck at night over rough, traffic
congested roads, without lights, with
shells whizzing and bursting all
around. A road is pretty hard target
for long range artillery. Otherwise
we might have Jared worse.
1t is remarkable the qualities of en-
durance that can be developed | have
been through practically every style of
living imaginable. Exposure has be-
come second nature l have slept in
the mud in dog tents, in trucks, in hay
lofts, in broken down houses. Eating
has been something of chance. Con-
ditions will not improve as long as we
are in Germany.
There is one thing that interests me
particularly around here. I see so
many stretches of woodland that are
l.