The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-04-25
LETTERS FROM THE
BOYS IN ARMY CAMPS

i
Mr.. and Mrs. Fred Nitzkowski have
Just received several letters from
ltheir SON Victor. who has been in the
service since April ~. 1917. Many
and varied have been his experiences
He went TO Ailetown. Pa, with the
Hamline ambulance unit and since
his honorable discharge from the unit
he has been in the navy most Of the
time. He received all his wireless
Training in Seattle, Wash, and was
appointed with his pal as wireless
man on the u. s. S. Eastern Shore
vessel which left Bremerton, Wash.
January 1, 1919 January 10 they
landed at P'nama where they re-
manned several days and then went
10 New York. On February 10 a wire :
less was received by his parents stat =
ing that he was leaving New York.
Several letters were received telling
of some of his experiences on the
route waters. Upon entering the
straits OF Gibraltar they were just
sixty feet from a floating mine. TOO
close for comfort as he remarked
about 1t.
March 5. 1919.-Dear Folks: We
are on our way again but this time
very slow and anchor at night be-
cause the Mediterranean sea is just
full of stray mines. but you don't have
to worry for we get their positions by
wireless every night
| Had little accident the other day
at Gibraltar when fell in life boat
and put dent in my chin, but its
| coming along fine We get into Con-
lstantinpple in few days and unload
Talk about hard luck had $25
stolen from me. but guess I'll sur
vive all right. Was on the U. S. S.
President Wilson Sunday which is a
big iroop transport that arrived at Glib
raltar from France and ! found some
things in Gibraltar to bring home and
will get more at Constantinople if
don't lose all my money. From the
! sound of this letter you can tell
don't feel a bit like writing but there
is nothing else to do. Now when
get home which will be in June. III
tell you all about our work and navy
life. because really wireless operat-
or gets in on all the confidential
stuff that goes on, and great deal
of it comes through the air. There
are things going on that ! cor.'d not
write but will tell you when | get
home. / received my first class wire
less rating when / was in New York
so | figure | have done rather well
in the navy. When YOU think of the
tfxr Z nm nttl, 10 In
thousands Of dollars to me in exper-
fence. hope 10 take trip TO
the Holy Lands from ConstantinOple.
but am not sure yet. Just at present
we are off fhe coast of Sardinia which
is an island not far from Rome and
by tomorrow will be going through
the straits of Messina which separate
Sicily from Italy and then on to
Greece and then up to Constantinople
so If you havessa map you can follow
our course. IS,e water and weather
have been fine fand nrorl;en ~ ctHv
so which is very welcome after going
across the Atlantic. So far tho
countries we touched are North
America. Central America. South
America. jamaica Cuba. Azores. Por-
tugal, Spain hfr'ca. Sardinia and
have yet to foueh Italy. Sicily. Greece.
Turkey andgAria Minor So you see
If we stcnlthero 1t will male Gnite n
trip. Will no through the Dardancl-
les tomorrow. Must stop Love to AL.
Vic. II
March 10 1919-Dnar Folks: We
got into G ,nstantinop'e this morning
after "a d"7,'s, run mp tie NardanelleS
- a. IL,
only to be tod orr journey was still
Incomplete so tomorrow We start out,
go through the Bosphorous which
separates the city of Constantinople in
to two parts. one side Stambul and
the Asia Minor side Constantinople.
but they are one and the same city.
My trip through the Dardanelles is
one which will never be forgotten,
also the trip through the straits of
Messina and up through the Archipe-
lagos which is the name given to
those islands off Southern Greece.
From the beginning to the end of tn"
Dardanelles YOU got good idea of
what war orally is as the stream was
literally strewn with sunken ships of
every description and in looking
along the shore you would see only
walls of buildings which stood only
to tell the story of once thriving
city, or here and there you would see
the grave of some English officer
who lost his life in the seige, and was
buried there, being too far from his
native land. We have to be thank
full that when that old battle was 60
ing on we were reading about it in
stead of being there as it was an aw
full sacrifice of human lives. was
talking to an American sailor who
was interned on board the U. S. S.
Scorpean for IL months and he gave
MS an account of the sinking of the
Breslau and the escape of the Con
bin which were two large Germans
raiders who were up in the Black sea.
He says one morning about ten
O'Clock these two German battle wag
ons came through the BosphorOus
down out of the Black sea, making
about twenty eight knots an hour
and their smoke stacks red hot, and
just behind them going at full speed
was the whole Russian Black sea
fleet out. there were too many of
them and when they got to the OAR
danelles tie raiders could go no fur
Their. The Gonbin got behind sea