Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1919-03-07
THRILLING
EXPERIENCE
Parker Thomas, a Fulton County
Soldier Writes of Actual Expert
ences and Sensations on the West
ern Front With the Fighting 3Sth
Infantry-NOw on the Rhine

Ettringen Germany, Jan. %, 1919
Dear Brother Wesley:
Received your welcome letter last
night and so will try and answer it,
/ am not able to write to all who
have written me SO will write you
this and you can read it to them
write you this and you can read it 10
l vii tell you of few things
that will perhaps be of interest to
you all.
You no doubt have heard of the
3rd Division and 38th Regiment 70
which l belong, perhaps you have
heard of the battle of the Marne and
at Chateau Thierry of the 38th In
fantry, of 5000 men holding two
German Divisions at bay and driving
them back, two German Divisions are
25, 900 men which makes $4,000 more
men than we had. If we had given
way here the Germans would have
been in Paris in few hours. This
was the first time the Germans met
def, at and the first time to meet
the 38th, after that we were sent
from place to place to back Other
divisions, but when we went on the
ne nothing was backing US, because
they knew they only way we would
G was ahead We were on the
esle river at Leno then from there
We went to St. Mihiels sector, were
in sight of Metz. St. Mihiels was
an all American drive, was the hard
est barrage / ever heard. From
there we went to the Toul front
from there to Verdun here the
French said you can't move them
we have tried it for four Years, but
we moved them, when they sent over
/ a shell or two we sent back twenty
! five. Our last battle was a five
| days fight from the morning of the
9th to the 14th of October. Five
days l will never forget, l guess the
reason any of US are here it was to
be so. A few days before we went
over the top we had started to dig
each of US a hole like you would 70
Dut an anchor post for wire fence in
have slept many night in such a
/ hole, you see shell must fall right
in on you almost before it will get
you, well we had dug about a foot
deep when six German planes flew
over us at a height of $50 feet and
opened machine gun 1re on US we lay
| fiat in our holes. / made up my
mind here is where | quit for they
sont a string of bullets like you
would drop peas in the garden l could
hear every one hit the ground. The
fellow next to me had five holes
in his overcoat but did not get hurt
this five days fight was at Metteleen
Farms Then we went in support
FOR eight days in a woods, we had
/ LII al
feet wide and two feet feet deep
with a steel roof, about four o'clo X
one morning a shell struck about six
/ feet from US and killed a fellow and
guard about rod away tore part
| of his head off. In about minute
another came and killed one fellow
and hurt another From here we
went back from the front and help
ed two days; took trucks back to a
town by the name of Morley where
we were when the armistice was
signed, but we were ready to start
FOR Metz if it had not been signed
So l guess l would have been on the
ut again in about two days.
We'll l suppose you wonder where
} l am now, we hiked into Germany
1ow in a town on the Rhint
river about fifteen miles from Cob
enz, am well and all right, I suppose
any will say this is a fish story
but we were not fishing when this
took place, these are just plain fact:
} l gave them to you'as they happened
Well 1 must close and go to The
Y. M. C. A. and get some hot choco
late.
Your Brother
Parker E. Thomas
Co. M. 38th, Infantr!
6 A. P. o. Via New Yorl