Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-01-29
Word FROM BOYS
ACROSS THE SEA
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AAOAsOOO 49,
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the town where we are located. It
is about twenty-five miles northwest
of Coblenz on the Rhine.
1T is now ten o'clock, so good night.
"Your nephew,
"Pvt. Lynn w. Childs,
Co. H, 16Sth Inf, A. E. F. Germany.
Private John E. Hermann in Luxem-
berg.
Gutenberg, Dec. 9th, 1918.
"Dear Brother.
"Am going to answer your letters
at last. Received your letters of Nov.
Goth, and Dec. End, yesterday. Was
surely glad to hear from home, and to
get the sheets of writing paper and en-
velopes you sent I expect you folks
have thought of the many things that
might have happened to me, inasmuch
as YOU have not heard from me for
SO long a time. We were most aw-
fully busy chasing the Huns and finally
got them up tree.
I expect you are wondering how we
got up here into Gutenberg. We made
the trip in eleven days, with a few
days rest between times, going in all
a distance of $50 miles. We are now
in Moestroff, which is about half
hours walk from the German border.
Moestroff is about four or five miles
from Dickerch, which is fair sized
city. We left Recount, France, on De-
cember 9Th, and hiked seven days
straight and then stopped one day to
let our breath catch up with us. The
whole 33rd division moved and 1t was
surely some parade We marched
through lot of little towns, and stay
ed in some really nice towns over
night. Sometimes we were lucky
enough to find vacant rooms to sleep
In. We carried fair load, consisting
of our pack, overcoat, raincoat, gas
mask tin derby, few other articles,
and of course, our rifles. We always
carry our gas mask, tin derby and the
rifle on every move we made. These
articles are our best friends at times.
l have made every hike that the COM
pany has made. I am heavier now
than l have ever been, weighing ITS
pounds.
After we had rested one day we
hiked two days and got to Mertert,
where we stayed three days. Mertert
is little town about five or six miles
from Treves, which is good sized
place. We also went through place
called Esch, which was about the first
real lively place we had seen since we
left the trenches on November 18th.
We went through Luxembourg City on
December 14th. This is real city.
Everyone was stepping high and hand
some while going through these places.
There had been American troops
through here before we came and all
sorts of decorations were out to greet
the eyes of the Yanks Believe me,
these people in Luxembourg surely ap-
preciate what the Yanks have done
and they treat US fine. You see all
these Luxembergers speak German.
It seemed pretty fine to speak to them
and be able to understand what they
were saying. / never could get onto
the French lingo While we were at
Mertert we were right close to the
German border Ali that separated
us. from Germany was the Moselle
river. KS 4
We left Mertert on December 10Th
and reached this place on the 22nd.
BY this time we had whitfield off a
good many hob-nails and some OF the
boys had blisters on their feet but
have been lucky myself with my feet.
Haven't had sore feet after all the hik-
ing we did. really did not think that
I had such a good set of running
gears"
Some parts of this section of coun-
try are level while other sections are
billy, almost mountainous. Luxem-
burg is a great country for fruit,
grapes and apples. There is :certainly
some beautiful scenery among these
hills. The towns are located in the
valleys and you don't see them until
you are right onto them. A railroad
runs through this place, and so does
the Moselle river. The river runs
within 100 feet of this house.
Lately | have been getting letters
and papers quite regularly, and am
surely glad to get the paper from
home. Roy Hunt of Earlville is here,
and he also is anxious to read the
news in the home paper. l am look
ing anxiously for the Christmas box
you folks sent me- We are pretty
well equipped now and do not want
for anything. We have had some
snow, but very little cold weather.
was sorry to read in the paper
that Carl Midkiff was killed here. AL
so Nelson Radcliff, who was in this
division.
/ have been collecting numerous
coins-French, German, Belgium and
Luxemburg-as souvenirs.
Well, I expect you had big feeds
on Christmas day. | can't complain.
We had fresh pork for our dinner,
which was quite treat for us. Tell
them all hello for me.
Your brother,
Private John E. Hermann.