Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 145, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1918 — VERN DAVISSON HAS THRILLING EXPERIENCE [ARTICLE]

VERN DAVISSON HAS THRILLING EXPERIENCE

Somewhere in France, May 26. Dear Pa and Ma: *__,i u I received your letter® dated April 18 and 21. Glad to hear from you. We are working day and night now. Have been for about eight or nine days. Up to date X have managed to get about 24 hours sleep out of nine days and nights. The .roads have been so badly shot up we had to fill in big shell craters and cut trees from across the road so we could get through with our ambulance® to the poste to get the wounded. Had to do all that under shell fire. Have had several cars hit. Two nights ago my car received two nice holes through the body. It is my second new car in two weeks. The first night at poste the road just in front of the paste was so full of big shell craters that I stopped my car and borrowed a pick and shovel from the cave and filled two big ho'es so the cars could toe turned around in front of the poste. The French told me not to do that, to stay in the car until things quieted down a little. They loot me the tools tout they were afraid to come out and help, so 1 continued to du the work. Every little while a aftieil would hit close and 1 would Jump in the ditch to avoid the spray of shrapnel, then continue until the next pne. r inallv X got it done and turned my car around and had a load waiting for me, so I took them and winded my way tfhrougii the rest of the shell holes for about two kilometers to a good road and felt much relieved to get out of that place. It is not so bad now as it was for a while at first, tout we all feel shaky going down that atrip of road, for every two or three minutes shellLs drop all along there. We call that Place ••Dead Man's Gulch” because thO road is strewn along either side with dead soldiers. Some were laying there two weeks, as there was no time to bury the dead and too dangerous to hesitate along there. D<*d horses, wagons, ambulances, guns, helmets— -everything lay just as it was killed or shot to pieces—the most terrible sight any one ever saw on any pant of the front. We were about tired out. Several of us got a slight touch of gas—not bad enough to stop work. Duvall is back to tihe section now all O. K. June 3.—Have been so busy lately, have not had time to write even a line. Getting about five or six daye rest now, then return into the hell again. One of Our drivers got nit in the leg by a piece of shell a few days ago, but his wound was not serious. Several of our cars got chewed up a bit by shells. I got another new car a few days ago and it got a few shrapnel holes through "the body already. This is my second new car in a month. Have almost seen my finish several times during the big battling, but pulled through O. K.‘by some good luck. Just took i a load of wounded from the poste, which was located in the remains of a little town just behind the trenches which were exceptionally close, and came back after another. The town was being fiercely bombarded. The streets were full oi buildings tumbled down, and large shell holes. A shell hit the Red Cross poste and tumbled the building and krfocked the cellar in just before I could get there again. The shells were coming so thick I had to pull my car •behind the big brick churdh and wait awhile. Wlhile I was dodging around from one corner to the otiier a big one .hit the church, blew the windows out and the doors open and knocked part of the church down. I almost gave up the ghost I could not find a place anywhere the- shells were not coming, therefore I just kept on dodging behind the corners to save myself from the flying pieces of shell. It got so hot around the church I had to vacate that place, so I began to look for a way out of town. Every street I went to was tumbled full of debris and Mocked up so I cranked up "Lizxy" and Imagined she was a goat and drove over the remains of a house in fihe street and managed to get out. I bursted a tire in' the attempt but had no time to make any repairs there, besides I was the only person left <n that town. Believe me I must have looked lonesome. I sure felt it, and it was some relief to get out The bocftes were shooting big six and eight inch shells in there. "Poor sport.” Don’t know where we will go after this little nest of a few days. I bope not such a rotten place we just came out of. VHRN C. DAVISSON. U. S. A. A. S. ,628 Conway Autos Par. B. C. M., Part*, France.