TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MELBOURNE TIMES AUGUST 15, 1918 P. 5
Dear Dad and Mother:
After getting settled down once more for at least a while, I will write you again. I am fine and dandy, have a good appetite and plenty to eat--never have had so much as a bad cold since I have been here.
I have been seeing lots of France, and undoubtedly the most beautiful part. I have often heard of France being a beautiful country but it far exceeds anything I had ever thought of. It certainly is sad to travel along the front and see the pretty towns almost completely destroyed. I am at present located in a good town, but there is not much excitement here as there was in the place we just left. We had a German air raid every night we were there except one. The whole town, civilians and soldiers, were supposed to go every night at eight o'clock, to a cave in the mountains for protection from the air rades, but as it wasn't a pleasant place to sleep, a friend of mine and I had been sleeping in the barrack, and during the raids we would go to the trenches till they were over. So one night we were out about a mile from the barracks walking around, when the raid alarm was given. We thought we would have time to get back before it began, but when we were about half way back shells began to burst by the hundreds from out the air craft guns, and shrapnel to fall around us like hail. Then all at once a bosch plane darted down near the ground and dropped four bombs near us. It seemed like the world was turning wrong side out. After we came to ourselves and found we were all together, we took shelter under a residence till the raid was over. There were something near a hundred bombs dropped in the town that night. After that we went to the cave with the rest.
In the raids the property loss amounts to quite a lot, but never many lives lost.
Uncle Sam's boys are doing some excellent work over here for the past few weeks. We are gradually moving on toward Germany, of course slowly. The German prisoners that are captured now are very poorly dressed and look as though they were about "all in." They must be getting short of supplies but they certainly are not short of men.
I have met a few Belgian families since I have been here, they are among the nicest and most sociable people I have ever m----: all jolly, even though some of them have lost their homes and most of their families.
I have never yet been able to get the Times. Notify the editor of the change of my address. I am getting to be quite a Frencman, but I had rather speak English.
Write often and maybe I will get the letters some time.
Lovingly your son,
Knox Battles
NOTES: Knox Maynard Battles was born at LaCrosse, Arkansas on April 16, 1891 and died on February 20, 1972 in Wichita, Kansas. He is buried in the White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Wichita. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Private serving in the 21st Infantry of the 2nd Division in World War 1. When he registered for the draft he was working for the railroad and was living in Arizona. He enlisted on September 15, 1917 and was discharged on August 26, 1919. He departed from Brest, France on August 3, 1919 and arrived in the US on August 10, 1919. He traveled on the ship, Imperator. He was listed as a Private in the Quartermasters Corp. Battles was writing from France on July 1, 1918. He had been in France for about a year.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Dear Dad and Mother:
After getting settled down once more for at least a while, I will write you again. I am fine and dandy, have a good appetite and plenty to eat--never have had so much as a bad cold since I have been here.
I have been seeing lots of France, and undoubtedly the most beautiful part. I have often heard of France being a beautiful country but it far exceeds anything I had ever thought of. It certainly is sad to travel along the front and see the pretty towns almost completely destroyed. I am at present located in a good town, but there is not much excitement here as there was in the place we just left. We had a German air raid every night we were there except one. The whole town, civilians and soldiers, were supposed to go every night at eight o'clock, to a cave in the mountains for protection from the air rades, but as it wasn't a pleasant place to sleep, a friend of mine and I had been sleeping in the barrack, and during the raids we would go to the trenches till they were over. So one night we were out about a mile from the barracks walking around, when the raid alarm was given. We thought we would have time to get back before it began, but when we were about half way back shells began to burst by the hundreds from out the air craft guns, and shrapnel to fall around us like hail. Then all at once a bosch plane darted down near the ground and dropped four bombs near us. It seemed like the world was turning wrong side out. After we came to ourselves and found we were all together, we took shelter under a residence till the raid was over. There were something near a hundred bombs dropped in the town that night. After that we went to the cave with the rest.
In the raids the property loss amounts to quite a lot, but never many lives lost.
Uncle Sam's boys are doing some excellent work over here for the past few weeks. We are gradually moving on toward Germany, of course slowly. The German prisoners that are captured now are very poorly dressed and look as though they were about "all in." They must be getting short of supplies but they certainly are not short of men.
I have met a few Belgian families since I have been here, they are among the nicest and most sociable people I have ever m----: all jolly, even though some of them have lost their homes and most of their families.
I have never yet been able to get the Times. Notify the editor of the change of my address. I am getting to be quite a Frencman, but I had rather speak English.
Write often and maybe I will get the letters some time.
Lovingly your son,
Knox Battles
NOTES: Knox Maynard Battles was born at LaCrosse, Arkansas on April 16, 1891 and died on February 20, 1972 in Wichita, Kansas. He is buried in the White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Wichita. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas Private serving in the 21st Infantry of the 2nd Division in World War 1. When he registered for the draft he was working for the railroad and was living in Arizona. He enlisted on September 15, 1917 and was discharged on August 26, 1919. He departed from Brest, France on August 3, 1919 and arrived in the US on August 10, 1919. He traveled on the ship, Imperator. He was listed as a Private in the Quartermasters Corp. Battles was writing from France on July 1, 1918. He had been in France for about a year.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD