Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-01-04
With Our Soldiers and Sailors Over There
COROTHERS TELLS WORK
 OF THE ARMY ENGINEERS
 IN THE ALLIES LAST DRIVE

| N I'LL HLLILU LnUI UuIII l l.. V. Corothers writes from Franc, Of the work done by the Engineers i, ] some of the biggest battles of tht war
 "We are just finishing our third bic bridge over the Mouse and I hear il IS to be our last. The weather has been line lately, which is unusual fo, france; frosty but clear Some think the absence of heavy firing is the cause.
 Our censor is lifted now so I guess IL Will do no harm to tell you of the places we visited. As 1 told you in a former letter we wasted no time on our way from the ship at Brest to the front. We went to the front during the second battle of the Marne at the Bois De Belleau, later named after the Marines who were in action there at the time. We were used there as infantry and l must admit our first impressions were not favorable. There was lots of rain and mud and although 1t was July it was as cold as in Jan. in Chloride or at least we felt so.
 We followed that front through to a place called Courcy and then went to a large town taken by this time, called Fere En Tardenois. Our real labor started now and we made and repaired roads, made dug-outs and bridges all along our front and with the French as we'll. We also built and dug observation posts for our mil itary and artillery observers and found this latter to be a most excit- ing job. During this time all the roads were under constant shell fire and raked at intervals by shells of all calibers. Most work needs must be done at night and of course no lights, not even a cigarettes glow could be shown without endangering all hands. The huns at this time had control of the air and burned our sausage shap- ed balloons and flew over our lines almost at will. The roads, desert ed by day, were a seething mass of vehicles of all kinds at night and I often wondered how such traffic could be carried on under such circum- stances with such few mishaps. It sure speaks volumes for the ability of our truck drivers.
 Our camp, near Chaeau Thierry, was often shelled, but did little dam age to us as the H. E. s. usually fell on one side or the other even if quite near. The house was in was struck several times and not one of us was hurt. We were raided at night ire quently but we played lucky and es- capped injury even tho they turned the machine guns loose into us.
 We left this front in a big storm and came to the American end of the line at Verdun. As we got here they were just taking to the rear long lines of prisoners netted during the great drive on St. Mihiel. We went in at Mon Fauchon just northwest of Verdun and built narrow guage rail- way and followed close up as our front advanced.
 The advance was slow but we fin ally got over the Mouse river and af- ter weeks of "nip and tuck" work the enemy broke. It was at this point that I saw the concrete machine gun nests in their best perfection and learn ed to respect them. This last line called the Kremhilde Stellung follow ed the east bank of the river in rath- CT the heights, east of the Mouse.
 The river has a canal following it and for part of the way a second canal as well making it formidable barrier. The system of defense was nests alone with wire. of course, and the nests were at irregular intervals, about 5 0to 200 yards apart and about one half mile back from the crest in order that the crest could be swept if the first nests are cleaned out. It was here, Vilosnes near Sedan, that we found a nice new Liberty motor (aeroplane) shot down by the Ger mans a day or so previous. It was badly wrecked and blood stains all over the aviator's pit showed that he was unfortunate. We could not find the body. The observers seat was not hurt.
 It was here a little Lieut.. of ours had thrilling experience. We were waiting until the town across the rlv- CT could be cleared of the huns so that we could put in a bridge for the artillery to cross. We were anxious to know something of the materials
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