Mexico weekly ledger., 1919-01-02
LETTERS FROM OUR
SOLDIERS BOYS

leo, who has fought through all tn
. big American offensive, when HI
e heard that the armistice had beer
/ Signed, then he lay down where h
2 was and slept like dead for how lonG
4 he doesn't know. His letter, detailing
his fighting through the entire Amer
ican ocensive written to his parents
Mr. and Mrs A. E. Webb, of KanSa:
; City, follows:
Dear Dad and Mother
Hdqrs. 69th Brigade, Sampigny
, France, Nov. %, 191s.-Tomorrow has
been set aside as the day for writing
home a Xmas. letter. There's little
might say in Xmas letter that would
differ from an ordinary letter. For
the Xmas part I'll say that l wish
could be home to eat turkey, dressing,
gravy, oysters and mince pie with
you. No one knows when We'll get
home, but it will undoubtedly be long
before Xmas arrives next year.
You may have heard of one of the
notices adopted by the A. E. q, sew
eral months ago, "Hell, Heaven or
Hoboken by Xmas" Well, We didn't
miss it far.
Now that certain part of the censor
ship regulations have been lifted l
can give you better Idea of what
I've been through.
We landed in Liverpool, Eng, June
Is, stayed there two days. Went by
train across England to Southampton,
where we took channeel-. The lit
gait, landing US at La Havre, France,
early the next morning. From there
we went by train nearly across France
to Liffod lie Grand dept. of Vosges)
near Neufchateau. There we drilled
and trained until Aug. 1st. From
there we went into the Lucey sector
northwest of Toul. While there my
battalion had ten days in the front
line, ten in support, and ten back ten
miles in reserve. While in the front
lines my company held a front just
| No Mans Land was the Boche strong
hold of Montsec, the point of the st.
/ Mihiel salient. 1t was known as
quiet sector and outside of an occas-
ional bit of shelling and our nightly
patrolling. life was very like it had
been in the training days About
Sept. 1st, ammunition trains began
pouring into the area and every night
saw big guns brought in. Then carae
| other infantry and we moved over, oc-
cupying front of only one Ki1ometer.
The morning of Sept. IL we went over
from a line East and West just west
of the little town of Flirey. The Boche
lines opposite US were in Mormane
woods, which was jungle of wire
trenches and machine guns. Our ar
tillery barrage which had begun at l
a. M, had so torn the woods up that
the resistance was very feeble. Our
advance took US through Beney ard
Euvesin and Pannes where Major
Bland was killed.
We reached Bouillinville about dark,
expecting to rest for the night, but
receiving orders to continue the ad-
vance, we moved out The following
afternoon found us on the Army OBJ
jectives in Dampvitoux woods, north
west of Beney. We held that line 4
while then after four days rest went
into the sector around Taulny, north
of Thiaucourt. After few days there
we moved back and were moved by
trucks into the Argonne Meuse area.
Our first fighting there was taking
the Bantheville woods, which lay n. W.
of Romague and east of Buzanev.
After that we had few days for re-
did in one night what part of another
division had failed to do in five days. |
of Thiaucourt. After a few days there
organization before the final big push. |
The morning of Nov. 1st the Division
event over" with the 353rd and 354th :
in front, 355th and 356th following. |
They stayed in front two days and
advanced about Z kilos. At the end |
of the End day they were exhausted,
so we passed through them just south |
of Barricourt, where the Boche had |
made strong stand. We went |
through on schedule time, taking Bar
ricourt, Tally, Nouart, Beauclair,
Beaufort near Nourart we had the
pleasure of having to go over in the
sector of the famous Marines, who
were on our left, in order to clean out
some machine guns that were flank
ing US. We cleaned out the last Boche
west of the Meuse riveh, in our sector,
Nov. 9Th we were held up two days at
the river waiting for bridge material
and boats. The night of the 10th we
crossed at Pouilly, between Stenay
and Mouson, with Boche artillery FIRE
the fiercest ever. From the crossing
we pushed a little north of east. At
1890 the next day we held line be- !
tween Inor and Autreville. Had to
move back little to the place where
we had been 11:00 o'clock. We had
been in front nine of the IL days and
in those nine days had covered 30 Kill
ometers. My regiment was the only
one of the Division east of the river
that night.
We finished up at the very top of
the American First Army nobody on
either side of us. The Boche quit fir
ing at 11:00 O'Clock, but we didn't
know anything about the armistice
until they got word to us about an
hour later.
1t was only shawod of a regiment
that was left after IL days, without
blankets, with little sleep and less food,
and constant hell of artillery she'll
ing and machine gun fire from the en-
emy. When the end came we didn't
celebrate to any extent. / remember
l said, as that so?" lay down and
slept / don't know how long.
I've told you of the regiment. It
was the best in the Division. The Div
ision is one of the Army of Occupa-
tion, chosen for valient service, so l
guess we can feel that our work was
well done.
About myself: Well, about all
can say is that l was with the regi-
ment. In the st. Mihiel fight I had
of my company after my