The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-08-05
UNUSUAL LETTER
FROM HALE CHERRY
Writes Mother of the
Science of Artillery
Practice Today
RETURNED. HON E

This splendid letter is written to
Mrs. L. M. Cherry by her son Hale,
who will be remembered by many
Blackfoot people and is we'll worth
ones time to read:
Fl. Rosecrans, Calf, May u, 1919
Dear mother:
I | think the last time wrote you
was from Camp Dix, and l promised
you then that Il would write you a
long letter as soon as got settled
again. ~.
We arrived here at the post on
February % last Just one year from
the date we left for overseas.
have had two months furlough
and spent 1t with Hazel and Sunny
JIM" two of the happiest months of
my life. wish you could see Hazel
and our boy. know you would fall
in love with both of them. Hazel is
surely one of Gods best women. My
home coming to her was worth all
that went thru over in France, and
as for Sonny Boy, l can't begin to
tell you how sweet he is. He is so
good, hardly ever cries and Is as
smart as he can be. It seems to me
that he is the living image of the
little Teddy, whom I remember Of so
many years ago.
Well, suppose there are quite a
number of young men in Blackfoot
who were on the fighting front in
France and no doubt by now you
have heard OF some of the hell we
went thru. sent you a paper from
Camp Dix giving a brief history of
our regiment and hope you received
it. There were some errors in it,
but in the main it was quite correct.
Our first engagement was in the
st. Mehiel sector, where we were in
action for several days. We then
moved to the Argonhe sector and the
Germans put up stubborn defense
there. They shelled us continually
for five days and we lost lot Of men.
The "bois de FORCES" woods of
Forges) was our next position and we
were continually bombed from aero
planes at that position.
I had the good fortune and also the
pleasure of seeing Eddie Ricken-
hacker, the famous American ace,
bring down German plane just in
front of our battery at this position
Both the pilot and observer were
probably dead before they struck the
ground, as they were literally shot
to pieces. That was one of the secrets
of Kicks success-he was an expert
machine gunner, and seldom failed
to score hit when he got within
range of an enemy plane.
North of Verdun was our next
action and the Fritzies sure made us
hunt our holes there. Our position
was out in the open and the German
air men spotted us before we got our
guns in position and from then on,
day and night, they shelled us with
high explosives and gas. got slight
touch of sneezing gas while there, but
nothing serious, as sneeZing gas Is
harmless unless mixed with mustard
gas. t
/ did something at this position
which | think has cured me of ever
again wishing bad luck of any one.
] always went to a new position
ahead of the rest of the battery so
that as soon as position was
selected could lay out the gun pits,
lay off the base line and have the
necessary orientation data ready as
soon as the battery was in position
for firing. OF course, one of the first
things ! would do would to be find a
dry dugout is possible. At this posi-.
ton instead of dugout / chose a
small house that was there and when
the rest of my detail came up we oc-
cupied and fixed it up so that it was
bit more comfortable. We had Just
gotten nicely established when the
battalion medical officer came along
and spied it and ordered us to move
out as he wanted it for his medical
detachment. ! refused to move, but
he took it to the regimental COM
mander and the outcome was that we
moved. Just as we left I told the
who was a first 1ieutentnt,
that / hoped a German shell bowed |
his house to hell before we got out |
of that sector. The next day | was |
coming down the road when a six |
inch shell struck that shack, dead |
center. Five of the medico detach- |
ment, all who were there at that |
time, were killed outright. | stood |
bv one Of them who had his whole
right side blown away and watched
him die. ] have often wished, that
had not put that iinks on that
house altho it would have happened
anyway
The Champagne sector was our
1ext position and was not so bad as
Verdun. Our last position was at
Sedan and we were in action there
or six days. The day the armistice
vas signed we went into action at
laybreak and fired right up to ii
o'clock and the Germans did the
same.
When we. left here in 1917 the
battery that | was attached to num-
)ered $50 men. In the seventy-three
lays we were on the front we lost
l03 men killed and about fifty
wounded, including about twenty-five
,r thirty gas casualties.
That is one good thing about being
II the artillery, there are never very
many wounded. Whenever one is
struck with high explosive shell
it's all over but the bury
ng, and many times there is not
enough left for that. I saw II nm.
she'll strike and explode at a cor
,oral's feet and all we could see was
he leaves from bible which he had
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