The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1919-01-10
From Louie Rognstad

Nonsard, France, Nov. 26.
Dear Brother and Vera:
should have written to you be-
fore this but I've been putting it off
to see if l couldn't hear from you,
but nothing doing. Haven't heard
a word from you for about month
and half.
Now that censorship is raised
little I'll tell you where am now
and few other things that might
be of interest to you.
We are now located in some
woods close to little village CAL
led Nonsard. l guess you know
where our lines ran at the time the
war stopped. We are just straight
out from Metz, not so very far from
Verdun.
l will start in from the time |
landed, up to the present time and
give you brief outline of where
have been, etc. We landed in Brest
on the 18th of July and were sure
a happy bunch when we sighted
land. Fourteen days is long time
to spend on the water. At Brest
we moved to one of Napoleon's old
camps and some camp it was-built
in 1852. Everything was built of
rock.
We left Brest on the 18th of July.
Forty men on a box car and the
cars here are about half as large as
ours, so you can imagine how COM
Portable we were.
Landed at Bordeaux on the 17th.
Went out to Camp Louge the same
day. This is where the balloon
school is located and where we get
our training. Left Louge on the
18th day of August by train the
same as before and landed in Toul
on the 18th at II a. m. Stayed
there until dark and then set out
for the front by auto truck. Got
out there at l o'clock that night.
From then on the fun started. Air
raids at night and also shells. In
the day time it was shells and
Boche planes with machine guns
splitting bullets at us and our ba-
loon. They shot our balloon full of
holes several times but never did
manage to set it on fire until just
about week before the war STOP
ped.
| have been shelled, gassed and
machine gunned, but was lucky
enough to get out of all of it with
out scratch or any harm. But
am carrying piece of shrapnel in
my pocket that hit my good old tin
hat. It's piece about three inches
long, l inch wide and J inch thick.
The 18th of September we started
the st. Mihiel drive and then we
really found out what war was
You should have been here to see
and hear our guns when we opened
up our barrage. 1t sure was fierce
and almost knocked us off our feet
but know it was a darned sight
worse on the receiving end of those
shells, as we could see day later
when we got to going over captured
enemy territory. We were also in
a drive later than this but can't
mention that here.
Twill now tell you what l was
doing IN the balloon company.
am telephone man. You see we
have telephone communication with
the observers in the basket, so we
know all the time what they see
over in the enemy lines. Then we
have several lines running to differ.
ent artillery batteries, so we regu
late fire great part of the time
These lines are insulated wire
strung on the ground and must b,
kept in working order all the time
Then we must see that the phone
that goes up to the basket is all o
K, also the line from it to tn,
winch on the ground, men on tn,
phones on the ground, etc. We ar
IL men on the. telephone detail ant
had plenty of work to do.
Two of our men are out tonigh
on line trouble. 1t is raining an,
is as dark as pitch. You can imag
inc how nice it is. Don't know hov
far they will have to go to find i
but probably to Essey and that is
miles-a nice hike with test set