Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1919-01-29
BUFFERS is IN GERMANY!
GALLANT 32ND DIVISION IN THE
LAND OF THE HUN
Boys Tre1s the Beaten Famished Foe
Welfare Not Bright and Play
full Like the French
Dudeldorf, Germany. December 4

NY lear Wne. On the ISt day of
December at $3.50 in the afternoon |
crossed the bridge at Echternach into
Echternach-brucke and was in Ger
many. think / wrote to YOU on sat
/ urday and have not had a moment to
write since then until just now. We
left Walferdinger in Luxembourg at
/ IL o'clock Sunday, December LIST, and
arrived at Echternach at $3.50 D. m.
1t was a nasty muddy day and we had
/ to place one of the hospitals off in
: little town named Minden down the
Soar river. The road was fierce and
we got three trucks in the mud and
left them stuck there all night We
! established a hospital there and were
doing business in school house in a
I few minutes. And before morning
had a hundred pa tents mostly dough
: boys with sore feet. l stayed at the
home of German family consisting
I Of the husband and wife and eight
children, the oldest boy Of Is. This
was my first touch of the German
people. Well they were farmers, and
seemed little distant at first. You
( see the American army can requisi-
/ ton what they want and can have
+ blllets where they want and it natur-
ally would seem hard on these poor
+ NCt lAAeAtAos " Gt1g OuE Dlk1eliHE OiIlcef
/ is wise fellow and ne had told them
that the Americans were not a bunch
/ of terrors as they had been taught to
/ believe. At the same house where |
was, two privates who could talk
good German had secured rooms and
when it came supper time | took my
mess KIT and went to one of the kit
chens and got my grub and the boys
| did the same. They had some ground
coffee and | had some sardines, and
when we went back we asked the lady
| If we could eat in her big room, liv-
/ ing room. In half frightened man
ner she said yes, and we gave her
enough of the grub to make supper
for US all and she made excellent cof-
fee for US and brought out apple cider
and apple butter and some milk.
| When we invited her to eat with us.
and her husband and the children, and
| she sat down and drank little of the
coffee, she commenced crying, and
when asked why, she said it was the
first coffee she had had in four years.
| We had can of corned Wiley and our
coffee was sure a treat. When we
got through she told us that it was the
! first time in a long while that she
had left the table fully satisfied. /
gave the children some chocolate and
! gum and the temptation sure is great
to give all eatables to these half fam
| ished people. | guess the same thing
has happened all over this part of
| Germany, as the people seem very
friendly, all seem to be against the
| Kaiser, in person, and the military
| system, and many of them seem to
think there are better times ahead for
them all because they are whipped
The next morning we left this city of
Minden and went to Wolsfeld, reach
| ing there about p. m. Here | was
billeted up stairs in hotel cafe. We
arranged with the woman to have a
room in her house for the officers
mess and cooked outside and was all
set for good nights rest when at
$3.50 came orders that we were to go
on kilometers farther. | had to
beat it back to Echternach for rations
the next morning, and so | with one
sergeant remained in the hotel where
| had fine room and the lady gave US
fine breakfast the next morning and
we went back to Echternach and got
caught in long line of traffic and
walked kilometers and did not get
| the rations till dark. The sanitary
train was to move up into Germany
somewhere and so we beat it back to
the hotel at Wolsfeld and found no
troops there and so got our rooms
again and as we had rations with us
we got the lady to cook us a meal.
You ought to see the soup she made
for seven of US with can of tomatoes
and the. way she cooked meat with
touch of garlic. And potatoes, and
she furnished dill pickles and fresh
butter and we had grand feed. This
morning we got up early and she had
breakfast for us and we found out that
the sanitary train was at Dudeldorf,
so we went through Bitburg and on
over to this town. Here we found an
ancient city very like the French cities
surrounded with a wall and little mar
row winding streets that we can hard
| ly get a truck through The school
/ house where we have established
| hospital was built in 1884, and many
of the houses were also built in the
| zoos. The ration dump was sent up
to place called Speaker today and so
this afternoon | beat it over there
about kilometers, as the crow fies,i
but as we are in the mountains it was
about IL kilometers by road, but such
scenery and roads | have never en-
except in Switzerland. We went down
one mountain up announcer ana down
another to get to the ration dump and
going up the winding hills the grade is
so gradual that an auto can make it
on high. | was able in this town to
get one postal and in Speaker a few
others one of which shows the wind
| ing road | went over. / will send them
in this. 1t is hard to get postals over
here and the stores are quite bare of
the necessities of life. Soap and pep
per and bread will buy far more than
money. Soap is actually worth 10
francs, or about two dollars a bar of
one pound, common laundry soap. ]
am billeted with the notary public of
this town tonight. We rather expect
to move in the morning but it is so
difficult to get gas that we may have
to wait a day. The whole sanitary
train consisting of the ambulances
and field hospitals, take about 1000
gallons of gas a day and we just
can't get it. 1t is now getting desper-
ate 10 feed our crowd as we still have
one hospital and one ambulance COM
pany way back at Walfordingen, over
60 miles from here, and one hospital
and ambulance company at Minden,
about 40 miles from here, and the
rest are here If we had gas, which
we expect to get tomorrew, if we have
to run over the ocean to get 1t, we viii
move up the units way back and either