Milford chronicle., 1919-01-17
LETTER FROM OVERSEAS

The following letter has been re-
ceived by his parents from Mordecai
Hudson of FrankfOrd, who is with the
troops overseas:
France. Nov. "a. 1918.
Dear Father and Mother:
Well, being this is Fathers Day
they are allowing US TO write nearly
anything we want to and to tell where
we are at present and what battles we
have been in, etc.
Well. to begin with. left America
on the 22nd Of May and landed in
France at the port of Brest or the
Both. We were just seven days and
nights coming over. without even see
ing one submarine. ana the trip over
I must say was wonderful but when
darkness falls o nthe water at night
and there isn't light 10 be seen and
you can't even smoke a cigarette on
the decks and all you can hear is the
gentle slap Of the waves, it makes you
wish you had both feet on dry land.
But anyway, we got in the harbOr at
Brest all safe and sound. Brest is in
the northwestern part of France-get
map of France and you can easily
find it, Oh. | forgot TO tell you the
name of the boat l came over in. II
was the Northern Pacific aud her sis
ter ship, Great Northern, came over
with US. They were two pretty ships
We had no convoy at all We had too
much speed for the subs. Each boat
had four siX-inch guns on its decks
and | think three depth bombs and
one or two One-pOundeTs. The ships
were oil burners and twin screw, with
two big turbines driving them. They
were built at Cramps in Philadelphia.
Well, when we got off the coast Of
France, think we were about "A hours
off, We met five American torpedo boat
destrOyers and they protected US from
there on in, and We also had some
aerOplanes come out and convoy us.
But. OH what a feeling when we first
sighted land There isn't any use for
me to try to describe that feeling, for
there aren't words enough.
You had better rest your eyes a
while for l am going to makes this a
regular book, so be prepared to read
on. Well, we laid in Brest for about
.wo weeks, just outside of the city.
It was in an old fort that Napoleon
lad in the years gone by, with high
walls of stone with stone barracks
IN the inside. Once on the inside you
nay as well say goodbye to the out
side world until you got permission to
,ome out again. l got my first ride
IN the French railroads when we left
3rest, but we were lucky at that for
We road in passenger coaches, which
5 a rare thing for soldiers, but you
zee there weren't very many of us
IN dthey stored us in 3rd class pas
ienger coaches and hooked us on be-
lind one Of their passenger trains.
They are very different from our
rains. One of our passenger cars will
make two and a half of theirs, and
heir cars have compartments, each
DOM for about eight persons. And
mind you, you have to sleep in there
while enroute to different points, and
'ou look like sardines in a can, all
angled together. We went from Brest
o training camp up in La Courtine
n the state, or province, as the French
'eople call them, of Cruise, away m
n the mountains; and it was some
old place The distance from Brest
o La Courtine is about 240 miles. We
itayed in La Courtine about two
months and got the finishing touches
md then one day came the word to
move toward the front, which was hun
lred of miles away, and we boarded
'ox cars. There is a sign on every
'ox car in France, 40 Hummes-S
,heraux," meaning in English 40 men !
IT 8 horses. So you can judge the !
ize Of their box cars. One of our 40
DOT box cars in the States would make
hree Of them. Is It comfortable in {
hem? Take look at a cattle car
illed with cattle and then ask your
elf that question. Bbt we all love the
'ox cars for they save you poor old {
eet "buckoo kilometers"-many I
niles). We hit most all of the big !
titles in the central part Of France I
n the way down and we hit so close