The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1919-02-06
IN GERMANY
Lieut.. Heck Tells of Life Close to
the Firing Line and With the
Army of Occupation.
Guls, Germany,
January IS, 1910.

| sAA"Ay Va oSSAP0sASAA'
Guls, Germany,
January 10, 1915
Editor Times;
Occasionally get copy of your
paper. but suppose that most of
them get lost in the mail before
they reach me. But those that do
get are certainly appreciated
| think our organization has the
record of getting to the front. We
landed August 7 and within ten days
we were up where we could hear the
big guns and also were near an am
munition factory and OF course Fritz
was very anxious to get it and we
saw and experienced several air
raids. Next we were sent to some
French forts near Toul and you
know before the drive of September
IL that Toul was very close. Also
the headquarters of the 8oth Divis-
ion was within two kilometers of me
and as often as | went over there |
did not get to see soul that | knew.
| Il don't know thing about the 35th
as they were not near me at any
time but | know this about the Soth,
we, of Missouri, should be more than
proud of the Soth because they have
as good reputation as any division
over here and all the boys can say
with pride in the years to come that
they were in the 80th.) From there
we moved up to Feyen-haye, France.
and there we had our baptism OF
fire and any man that says he is not
| f.,;I & 81 a:+Iar foD1
a liar and more often both. We
had an experience there that ! will
never forget. We were having a
bombardment Of OUR living quar-
tiers" and it just happened that an
artillery officer was there and he
told us that he couldn't believe that
such small gun could be shooting
from behind the German lines so he
sent some of his men out scouting
and in ABOUT two hours they re-
| turned with one lone Hun who was
encamped in ravine about two
miles from our camp with a one
FOUNDER and plenty of ammunition.
We were not bothered any more.
From there we moved to Limey,
France, and were there when the
armi,tice was signed. We thought
That we would be mong the first
troops sent home but it was not to
be. We received orders on Saturday,
.70yVT11rer To, 10 pack UP and start
travelin which we did, and we have
been on the move since. We passed
through Thiacourt, and let me say
here that this town although it had
been in the hands of the Germans tor
practically the length OF the war was
not destroyed near as much as the
towns which had been helu by the
French, and from there we passed
through Nammes across No Man
land to Charey. Neither side had an
opportunity to construct trenches or
build wire entanglements so it did
not look as much like No. Mans land
as the country in the rear of it. We
went through Chambley near Briey.
which we could see in the distance,
and on into Luxembourg | had Il
chance to go into the city of LuNeni-
burg and liked the city very much.
but purely OH account OF its quaint
ness and not on account OF its beau-
ty. We had our first sight OF Ger
many at Wormeldangen and from
there on we followed the Moselle
river. We crossed into Germany at
Grevenmacher and came through
Treves. (Trier) Cochem and on up
to our present station. We are now
within 40 minutes walk of Coblenz
and while | have been over there two
times | have not had much of a
chance of seeing enough OF the city
to describe it to you. However, it is
by far prettier than any OF the cities
that | have seen on this side.
After the boys get back home
there are going to be some wonder
full tales told and some of them will
be the truth, of course, but take it
from me, the boys who have had the
real experience and who will be able
to tell you the best stories are the
dough-boys. The other branches OF
the service have contributed towards
the successful termination of the war
but the dough-boys are the ones who
put it across. They are the ones
who have endured most of the hard
ships and have been in the most ex-
posed and most dangerous positions
and have also been the ones to suf-
fer the most losses and /, with
of others, honor them
above all other classes of the SER
vice. (Now as | am not dough-boy
you can see that ! am not footing
nv own horn'D. Our regiment has
been connected with an engineer
regiment ever since our advent to
the front and we have been doing
engineer work.
With kindest regards, ] am,
Sincerely yours,
Ist Lieut.. H. H. Heck,
Co + sIst Pioneer Infantry. |