TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MENA WEEKLY STAR NOVEMBER 14, 1918 P. 7
October 7
I hope we don’t have to go through such a shell fire again. Whenever we saw a shell coming we would duck and look to see who would get it. Soon we got over that, and each looked out for No. 1. The engineers were put in as infantry the third day of the drive and we surely made good. Our company was hit hard, nine men were killed and 72 wounded and gassed. We lost as many as all the rest of the regiment, but we drove the Huns back 15 miles, right from the front of Verdun where they had been since 1914. They were well entrenched, but our artillery certainly brought them out.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Russell Alger Burtch to his parents Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Burtch. He was born on August 12, 1986 and died on December 15, 1973 at Mena, Arkansas. He was buried in the Pinecrest Memorial Park, Mena. His military headstone identifies him as a Missouri, Cpl. serving in the U. S. Army during World War I. He enlisted early in the war while attending school in Lawrence, Kansas.
TRANSCRIPTION BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
October 7
I hope we don’t have to go through such a shell fire again. Whenever we saw a shell coming we would duck and look to see who would get it. Soon we got over that, and each looked out for No. 1. The engineers were put in as infantry the third day of the drive and we surely made good. Our company was hit hard, nine men were killed and 72 wounded and gassed. We lost as many as all the rest of the regiment, but we drove the Huns back 15 miles, right from the front of Verdun where they had been since 1914. They were well entrenched, but our artillery certainly brought them out.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Russell Alger Burtch to his parents Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Burtch. He was born on August 12, 1986 and died on December 15, 1973 at Mena, Arkansas. He was buried in the Pinecrest Memorial Park, Mena. His military headstone identifies him as a Missouri, Cpl. serving in the U. S. Army during World War I. He enlisted early in the war while attending school in Lawrence, Kansas.
TRANSCRIPTION BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT