Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-03-14
Letter From France
Billy Grauel, Former Journal Reporter, Writes
an Interesting Letter From Bordeaux
Headquarters Company,
Bordeaux Embarkation Camp,
AZ. o. 7o5-A., A. Ell France-Feb. 20, 1919,

JOURNAL Vu were s % n TO SEND me. L knO udt W HdNC WlN|Sh "
fore and while my friend, to whom I had you send the letter, mailed the
same to me it was never delivered, as I have had at least five different adj
dresses overhere. tits ) possible that these letters may be returned to you.
Should this happen, just place them in ar envelope and forward Ito me at
the above address and in due time I will receive them. Many times during
my stay over here 1 have thought of writing you. Iconsider you one of
the best employers 1 ever had the pleasure of working for. will look for
ward to the day when we can renew acquaintance. The JOURNAL, l
notice is running on a fourpage basis. Considering that the issues bear
the date of January, the paper looked tres bein. Your reporter seems to
have a humorous vein. Of course the JOURNAL did not look as good to me
as when 1 was fortunate enough to work on it-but then l was never on the
lob in January. l notice that you ran quite a large sized ad on the hrst
page. May the JOURNAL enjoy a like business in every issue.
L feel that you and dear Mrs. Dubois and dear Emily might be pleased
to know some of my experiences. If l were in a position to tell them TO
you in person 1 think I could explain them more fully. Nevertheless l
have intended writing you good folks for some time, and l have lad ASIDE
the evening for your personal benefit. Before I start I would like to extend
my warmest and sincere greetings to MI. and Mrs. Moore and family, and
to all my old friends in Whdwood-bythe Sea.
On the a5h of March last year, I was surprised to find that l had a
possible chance o enter the service. 1 never felt for a minute that 1 had
The soldier ahnitv to become an officer. l did however try for the Marine
Corps, was turned down for the Regular army and was refused admission !"
the Navy. In the first part of the Draft 1 had been called and placed way
down Oh the bottom of the list of underszabes. The last week in March,
through a coincidence, I had long talk with the Draft Board committee
III explained to them that I was anxious to join the ser1ce-that III my
friends we're sin there doing something. My eyes was the main drawback.
They had improved somehow or other and on a chance examination inc
board physician advised me that l had a tnhe of chance to get past the
doctors at camp. On April rst, the board was sending fifteen men to
Meade, Maryland. I offered to go at once and was one of the fifteen. |
was at Meade about twenty days. Passed all the examinations 7. H. ana
was ordered to Camp Upton, New York.
Shortly after reaching Upton I was put in Company H, 109th Infantry.
There I was in the very outfit I would have joined were l permitted to en-
list a year previous. Two days after l joined old Company II, she received
orders to go overseas. This was a little faster action than I had barganed
for, but bottled up thoughts of home and the 1st of May we passed the good
old Statue of Liberty. I have not seen her since, and it will be memorable
day when l set my optics on her once again.
Our trip across was made on a British patrol boat of good size that had
panoled the North Sea for three years and had a record of I 2 submarines
She was a marked boat, having previously lost her sister ship. We kept
careful watch and helped the ship crew as much as possible. This boat made
one nor trip to England and as sent to the bottom while on her way to the
States. On the 10th we were told we were on the Irish Sea- In a little
while W pulled into Liverpool, and while it did not impress me IS a wonder
full place for beauty, the sight of big city was worth a heap to u.s. From
Liverpool we had or first train1ide overseas and it is just like riding n
Pullman from Phnly to Wndwood-it is so different. We marched into
British rest camp and stayed overnight Next day found us in Dover ane
after foohng around the debarkaton station, trying to get a shiLing's worf
of chocolate fol a quarter and talking about what We were going to do to thu
Germans, we crossed the channel to Calais.
My first look at this city gave me the idea that | knew OF nicer place
than Calais, France. We marched down to camp and about five odoc
were given passes into the town. About six of us got into town together ane
70 nroceeded TO admire the sights. 1 remember seeing the following ma
tons represented by soldiers galore, and in addition to the uniforms 10
aviaor, infantry, etc, you can understand the array: English Scotch
French, Italian, Serbian, Australians, Canadians, Chinese, japanese, Portu
gese, Americans, Algerians, Welsh, and here and there German prisoners
We could see by the condition of the buildings that the German aviator
not only were frequent visitors, but were mighty good marksmen. They
had a high tower looking like a merchant ship with her sails down. The
tower was still there, but in sections. At quarter to nine, it was still light
the military police ordered US back to camp, a they were expecting the al
most daily visit of the Hun experts, who came up the coast We had nc
sooner reached our camp than the .bombardment something new to my
civilian ears, started and I thought it was a sure enough war.
Our lieutenant told us that it was merely the ant-ancraft guns making
an effort to keep the pesky visitors off Evidently they did not have the
right distance or something, as within fifteen minutes after the alarm was
given they dropped a bomb on our camp and killed eight German prisoners
who were kept around the camp for odd duties. We were in this camp fou
nights and had the pleasure of being bombed three of the evenings We
pulled up tents for a little town somewhere behind the British lines and we
were drilling, and hiking, and drilling, and hiking, here and there until the
goth of Tune. when we had orders to move owe to the American sector.
This was good news to us as we were pretty nearly ate up with the lacl
of good rations. AT this time the British were in the midst of food troubles
and I'll say, that while we did not eat as have eaten since, 1t was the very
lbest the British could do. July 4h was a big day with Company H. The
day was spent in the pleasant pastime of walking up to positions alongside
lthe French and another American division. My old company was in tht
Chateau Therry district from July 5h until relieved, after they had parhci
pated in the big American drive which started July 18th. missed The
events after the 10Th. On the night of the 18th, l was wounded in the ter
rife barrage the Germans sent over, when they made their last attempt a
Paris. Army officials say that it was the greatest bombardment of the war
II was hit in the left foot about one a m, and left my company the mex
morning toward noon. l was placed in a French ambulance, visited a dres