The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-01-02

France" writes Rhae Swisher, son OF
Mr.. and Mrs. Martin Swisher of this
city, in a letter to his parents telling
OF some experiences throughout
France with the Headquarters Detach.
ment OF the First American Army. He
says:
We landed at Brest and got our first
glimpse of French people and sur.
roundings. The first thing we heard
was a strain sung by about twenty.
five French children. Hail, Hail the
Gangs All Here, Etc" They seemed
to like that song because they con-
tinually sang it and begged for pen
MES and cigarettes.
After about an hours hike, we
reached "Pontenezen Barracks" just
outside of Brest These barracks are
noted as having been used by Napol-
con-
We went to the Intermediate Ordn-
ance Depot No. 4, Mehun, where we
were located until Oct. IL. That place
is one OF the largest ammunition de-
pots In France and of course, our
work there was handling ammunition,
not on paper, but handling the shells
themselves While there, I took a
| course on ammunition.
J
ceived some news that made us happy
and at the same time disappointed us.
Just as we reached there we learned
| OF the kaser's acceptance of Wilson's
conditions, and of course we thought
| that possibly the whole thing might
end; we wanted it to end bad enough.
| but we hadn't seen thing interesting
| or hadn't even heard a shot.
| Arrived in ST. Dizier about o'clock
! In the morning.
Here it was that we first began to
realize that there was a war raging
We went to sleep to noise Of the big
guns and woke up by it, even though
we were thirty miles from the front
Here We saw wonderful examples of
the road traffic necessary to keep up
an army at the front. All kinds Of
trucks passed us, from ammunition
| trains to Red Cross Ford trucks.
After staying there for several days,
we went to Varennes by truck and
established dump. When we arrived
| there there was only a side OF hill
by the roadside, but when l left there
was dump of IS m. m. ammunition.
We went to Varennes just about
twenty days after it was captured by
the Americans so it was pretty well
"shell-shot." We pitched our pup
tents" on the side of a hill on one
side of the road and that night we
unloaded quantity of rs m. m. shells
from a French truck-train and we had
the beginning of dump.
Several days after the dump was
started, a French aviator flew over
and dropped code message, which
we later found out stated that seven
German airplanes had been over dur
ing the day taking pictures of our lit
tie dump.
In our dump, we had some very
dangerous gas and if it had been hit
our gas masks would not have done
very much good. Consequently, when
we went to bed at night we always
knew which way the wind was coming
from, so we would not have to stop
and wet a finger to see which side
dried first. before running.
One night, the Boches bombed our
place and didn't hit our dump but
could see our tents on the side of the
hill. SO they tried to get us with a
machine gun but didn't succeed.
Perhaps you remember reading in
the papers about German air raids on
Montfaucon and Ligny Well, the
same night they tried to get our place
but that is all the farther they got.
AS you possibly know. Varennes is
on what was the Hindenburg line and
Of course, being around there, we took
hikes into the trenches, dugouts, etc.
and got fine idea of modern fortifi-
cations. This was line of fortified
hills and on one side of the hill would
be trenches, lookout posts, machine
gun stations etc. and on the other side
would be dug-outs where the Germans
lived. They were fixed up as though
they meant to stay, having telephone
and electric light systems.
The Americans are building up the
roads to the front and are making good
highways out of what were formerly
poor roads. If you could see the traf-
fic necessary, you would realize the
necessity for good roads for they are
even more important than railroads.
At Ligny l got my first chance at
office work of any kind but instead Of
being accountancy it was stenography
Am still here and expect that l will be
until the office is split up when the
work is done.
On November s, the Ordnance was
moved from Ligny to a town by the
name of Souilly. We are expecting an
other move soon but don't know when
it will come off.
In describing the movements of his
company Immediately preceding the
signing of the arnistice. Private r.
B. Grigsby of Headquarters company
135 tn Field Artillery writes that on
November Sth they were in st. Maui
rice, but received orders that night to
move forward.
I'VE had been shelled shortly before
and were just settled back trying to
get some sleep when orders came to
move forward. | was to make up my
pack and move over to the first bat
TALON, about three miles away. We
didn't start until 2 o'clock. however,
an dthen in the rain and mud on foot.
l was leading a horse. We had to stop
at some stables near Vignuels and
while there the Germans started she'll
ing the place, and like everyone else,
l thought every one was going to hit
my helmet. But none came close, and
We got to the first battalion by day
light They were all packed up and
ready to move