Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-01-10

hospital accommodations and praise OF
the American nurses. Everything 81
clean and sanitary and good things 70
eat. Said he would rather remain there
in a way but was also anxious to ger
back and down few iiCns. lie saiu
war was no fun but you bet we VIII DC
there with the goods as long as II lasts
and as the fellows say over here' the
first 10 years are the worst. Spoke n
great praise of the work the Red Cross
and Y. NJ. 6. A. had done and were stlll
doing.
Sergeant Clifton l.. Allen Of Head
quarters Company. seth Pioneer lnfan-
try, formerly Milliken Heavy Artillery
writes as follows to his folks. He IS
the sen Of J. w. Allen Of Mount YER
non:
Petange, Luxembourg, Nov. .. 1918.
Dear Folks:-At last I can write you
a letter ard tell you where have been,
where I am, etc.
l will give in brief where have been.
We landed in ST. Nezaire. France.
the 18th OF September. Our trip across
uneventful as We did not encounter any
submarines.
We stayed at St Eezaire for two
days. From there we went to Latrecer.
France, on the train which was two
days trip made in the famous FRENCH
'Side-door pullmans," known in Amer
lea as box car.
From Latrecey we marched to Arc Ell
Barrois. We stayed there week then
,,or,boI ha m tho ct at f.atre-
cey and took the train t. Fleury sur
Are. We then made two days march
to Dombasle, France. Eombasle has
been our headquarters nearly all the
time we were in France. 1t was there
that | saw Harold Fairbanks.
While in France my company has
been attached to, and has been working
with, the Cd L. $. Engineer Corps and
we have been on several jobs with
them We built a road il railroad
yard between Dombasle aad Bleurcourt.
The next job was Il road at Gas lIospi-
tai No. 3. After tlat we ratrolled and
maintained the main road TO the front.
We then went to Loudly and started
to build road III the American ran
head there: we worked FIVE days hul
were called from the job before 1t was
finished as the Arinsticc was siSnc l
soon after we arrived there.
Loudly is an important. point as It
was Gen persning's headquarters cur
ing the last of the war.
Our regiment was ord ored mobilize
imme diately and we were ordered to
Dombasle TO get ready to start for Ger
,,tf re .
ton. We are row in the third army,
known as the Army of Occupation.
We left Dombasle the -1.h of Novem-
Der and marched SIX DAYS, averaging
about 10 miles a day carrying our packs
which weigh about GO pounds. We Were
footsore for few days kat have got
! hardened UP some now.
We have passed over some of the
hardest battlefelds of the war AMI
many places of interest. We have been
through 50 many towns and l can
not remember their names or their or
der. We are now in the town of Pc
tango. Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a
neutral country.
We have passed far beyond the fight
;n~ lines and are following up as the
Germans so out. AS they went out u
France they took nearly everything
with them. l have seen airplanes, guns
and all kind of equipment that they
left behind. Beside the road are dead
horses with meat cut out OF them whic
tie Germans lef' when they evacuated.
The last right I was in France l had
room that German officer occupied
only few days before.
| was in Belgium yesterday and quite
number told me of the terrible things
the Germans did.
In two days was in three different
countries-France, Belgium and LUX
emburg.
We use two kinds Of money here,
French and German. so we keep Two
kinds with US. We were paid last in
French money.
We have been here three days and ex-
pect to go ahead before long. I don't
know why we are held up but Bel
gian told me yesterday that it was be-
cause the Germans were delayed in
getting out.
We are going to Germany. don t
know sure where but think it is 20
Coblenz.
This is a very pretty country and the
roads are certainly fine.
There are some large steel mills here
in this section.
l am staying in schoolhouse and
sleep on the floor with Reddy. (Ralph
Curt.s).
Since we have been over here we
have only had two men killed, several
wounded, and several gassed. None Of
the companies have been in any bat