Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1918 — Drove Truck 4,000 Miles In Two Months Time. [ARTICLE]

Drove Truck 4,000 Miles In Two Months Time.

The following extracts from a letter received from D. J. Babcock last week may be of interest to readers of The Democrat. By the way, the report last week that the 30tlh division In which Delevan and John KHz of Newton township are stationed, was slated for an early return to the United States, seems to have been a little premature, according to the following paragraph In a Washington dispatch of last Satu-day: "General March corrected an erroneous impression that the 27th and f|'h divisions, " reported as withdrawn from the British lines, had been designated for an early return to the United States. These two divisions, he explained, have been returned to Pershing’s command and have not been assigned, for transportation home.” Delevan’s letter follows; i France, Nov. 7. Dear Parents.- Was very glad to get .your two letters of October 6, which arrived just one month later. I’ll admit that I haven’t: written home for a long time, hut I have been very, very busy. The division is back from the front for a rest and several of the trucks are being overhauled and that makes it quite bad for those left outside the workshops. In t'he last two months my truck has covered almost 4,000 miles, so you can see I haven’t had much time to kill. It is In for a general overhaulinr now and a new carburator. The old mill got so bad that miles to the gallon of gas was the best we could get out of it, so It was decided to have it remedied. We are well in the back area now and cannot here any of the big guns and seldom/ see an aeroplane even. I understand the division will be brought back to its former strength and undergo probably 60-days training before we see the line again. Where that will be no one knows, of course. The news at present-—with Turkey, Bulgaria and Auetrla-Hungary out of the way, and Germany’s white flag party on its way to meet .Marshal Foch at 12:3© o’clock today on the western front—seems to me to cast a doubt as to whether the division will ever see the front line again. The armistice terms granted to those countries aoceptng them practically eliminates them from the war. No, I have never written to Ossie, hoping always to meet him or some one else I knew in the States, but so far have met one ifrom around home whatever. In fact, we have .been used chiefly as shock troops and thus are generally on the move most of the time, remaining in one place but a Short time.

A couple of our trucks went to Paris the other day and while there the party saw some of the dandy trucks that are being ’sent over for the American army, equip-' ped with Liberty motors. The fellows said they certainly looked, good to them. I don’t suppose we will ever get them though. Have been tussleing with one of those short-timed but intensive bilious attacks I am subject to 'for the past three or four days, so It this letter sounds a little rambling; do not be alarmed. I will coma out of It some day again as usual, I guess, though at present I an» not feeling as good as possible. Oh, yes, the French civilians any the war is already “finis” or over, and they are celebrating accordingly. I will have to close now, hoping that by or before this reaches you peace will be a fact indeed. Trusting this finds you all well and hoping to see you soon, will, close, with love, DEB, ?