Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 238, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1917 — LET’S GO ON FRENCH FRONT [ARTICLE]

LET’S GO ON FRENCH FRONT

WITH “BUMMER” FOR A FEW MOMENTS AND SEE WHAT HE IS DOING. At the Eront. September 28, 1917. Dear Father and Mother: I received your letter dated August 13, including the list of Company M soldiers. * I am O. K. and trust you are the same. .. We have had no casualties among the drivers so far. One ambulance was hit in two places by shrapnel. One very dark night a large five-ton truck struck our car and slammed us in the ditch. We repaired it and went on to our post de secours. You remember in my last letter I told you about the gunner allowing us to shoot the cannon. We went back there two days ago and he had been killed, which lit and exploded just to the right of his cannon. All the rest of. the gunners fell flat on the floor and were not touched. You see we can hear one of those big shells coming and we have a few seconds in which to lie down or jump into a cave abri, before it explodes. They sound like the tearing of silk and we hear them before they get within a mile of us. When will the second draft begin? I suppose by now the first drafted men are all in camp somewhere.

I got hit yesterday by a piece of flying steel, but it was a lire iron. I had to change two tires and one of the tire irons slipped off and stabbed be in the temple. Had the wound doctored and am all right now except that I am wearing a bandage over the side of my head. I don’t know whether to apply for a pension or not. Ha ha. We carry some terrible sights in our ambulances, which I will not attempt to describe. I witnessed for the first time the other day the destruction of a French aeroplane, which was felled by a German aviator. The machine was smashed all to pieces, but there were no fatalities, all three of the occupants escaping. Thesq machines carry three men, pilot, gunner and front observer. It fell about one mile from our camp. The German anti-aircraft gun hit the machine, but the pilot managed to bring the machine inside the French lines. You see this is the worst war I was ever in. Ha ha. In ten or fifteen days we expect to go back on repos for two weeks and then will go back to the front at some other point. Duvall got a card from Alfred Thompson the other day, and he reported that he was all right. We will probably be with Fred Hamilton on our first leave of absence. We get seven days at the end of every three months. We were taken into the regular army, but will remain with the French army. Please tell Sam’s parents that he is feeling fine and has about fifty souvenirs of the war. I hear the “College Inn” had so many customers they could not handle them all. Tell “Bill” my customers are very easily handled, because they are on stretchers and with some vital part of their anatomy missing. This is sure no place for a tenderhearted person to be. I used to al- , most get sick to see some of the sights, but now I am getting used to it, just like a doctor. ~ t How are the crops around there? We heard they were badly fired. There is not much new news and it is almost the same every day. All we see is soldiers and accoutrements of war. A person in civilian clothes is a rare sight. Citizens don’t take the chance of living in this section; it is too dangerous. The big shells fall all around here. We live in a hole about half the time like a ground hog, with a roof of steel rails, sandbags, logs, etc. We really enjoy it. Answer soon. Your loving son, VERN. My address is: Vern C. Davisson, Convois Autos. Par. B. C. M., Paris, France.