Smyrna times., 1919-03-26
CLAYTON BOY WRITES HIS
EXPERIENCES IN FRANCE
SERGEANT GEORGE A. LODER
TELLS EVENTS TO HIS BROTHER
The Trip Over the Towns In France
He Visited the Fighting Zone and
the Bursting of Shells Near Him.

The Trip Over the Towns In France |
He Visited the Fighting Zone and
the Bursting of Shells Near Him.
John Loder of near Clayton has re-
ceived the following letter from his
brother, Sergeant George A. Loder of
the 59th, Pioneers in France which is
so descriptive of the life of the Della
ware boys overseas, we publish it in
full:
Rehon (Meurthe-et-Mosselle) France
January 28th, 1919
Dear Brother:-Here l come a
shooting at you "Finish"war but we
are still looking for war. But this is
war is the pioneer" war. Well bro
ther l will try to write few lines on
this war, where the Pioneers made
there name. Beginning from the
time we left my beloved U. S. A. un-
til we have crossed the whole West
ern Battle Front between Verdun and
Metz; and the sights we have seen
and the hardship's we have endured
since our arrival. I am now going to
try to explain to you. Well, we left
Old Camp Dix our training station on
Wednesday, August the 28th, 1918, at
10 p. M. Not word was said as we
boarded the train or as we marched
thro the camp as our orders were not
a murmur and all us fully know what
discipline is, our orders was obeyed.
We detrained at Jersey City at l
a. M, and boarded the ferry. Now
we are getting closer to our good ship,
our transport. We boarded her at
4.30 a. M, and it seemed as if we were
walking into a new world, she was so
large. No doubt you have heard of
this transport. Her name was or is
the Leviathan, or better known in
Germany as the "Fatherland." At the
outbreak of the war, this ship was
seized in one of our harbors with her
full crew. Of course her crew was
taken prisoners and the ship being
the largest afloat, United States
thought it a good plan to turn her
into a transport and a good idea be-
cause it has done it's share in carrying
troops. Germany believed that they
had sunk her, but no such good luck
had happened. After we went on
board we were assigned to our hunks.
By this time it was close to 5 o'clock.
The first thing early the next morn
ing the crew started loading their car
go. We went to breakfast at $50
a. m. On board ships the cooks work
ed night and day, working in shifts.
They had a time of it for with US it
was hot enough to cook US below deck,
and we were only allowed up on deck
certain times in day and believe me it
took patience to waiting for our load
We put up with this for two days and
the third day to our great delight at
LAS p. M, we sailed out of New York
with full cargo of eighteen thousand
soldiers and two thousand sailors with
total of twenty thousand men and a
good many of these were on deck,
when we sailed out of New York har-
Dor. There were soldiers all over here;
all you could see was olive drab. We
all waved good by to old New
York as we passed that glorious old
Statue of Liberty with four tugs, four
Hydroplanes and two submarine
chasers. About that time we were or
dered below to our deck which was
"a ~.
Second Day Out Aboard Transport.
The second day out we were pretty
well out at sea, with a rough sea on
and four Hydroplanes, two ballons
and two submarine chasers where til
with US. Seasickness had begun anC
only two days out. The time was al
so set up 40 minutes. The third day
our sub-chasers and planes all left III
alone. So it was up to ourselves nov
with rough sea on and our good
ship a rolling. Time was set up tina
day one hour. TheSfourth day, nothing
new happened. The rest of the tim
across also nothing happened until o.
the seventh day, at about 5 p. M, tn
best thing we had seen for six day
was land. We entered the Bay O
Biscay with twelve destroyers 81
planes and two ballons with us. w
pulled in our harbor at Brest abou
six o'clock, but our ship was so larg
we couldn't dock so therefore we wal
ed until Sunday to embark from OF
transport, which was the next da
We started embarking at 10 o'clock
m, going from our ship to the wha
on little tug boat. 1t was there thi
l thought she would turn over al
minute, but when l put my good o
reliable hot-nail shoes on French Sc
af 9 IN N m I falt ToOra at homo th.