TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SPRINGDALE NEWS NOVEMBER 8, 1918 P. 3
In No Man's Land, Oct. 11, 1918.
Judge and Mother Berry and all the other Berries:
Well, how are you people? I am fine and dandy am living in a dugout up on the Front. I have passed over ground held so long by the Hun and it is beyond my powers of description but it is one mass of shell holes and bomb holes, I saw one hole some 100 yds. wide and 50 feet deep, these large holes are made by the planes dropping bombs from great hights and they sink deep into the ground and as they are the highest explosives they sure do blow some ground. I have been in a few German dug outs but as it is dangerous on account of their leaving traps we do not go in many and they are simply great, they have pianos, fine beds, electric lights, range stoves and most anything you could wish for, they left their wine cellar behind and I do wish I dared get a bottle, I think it would taste good this morning but it might be loaded in more ways than one. I don't know just what to tell you. I have been over the most of France. It is a very pretty country, but their ways are so far behind ours. They all live in stone houses without ventilation and they have plenty of powder and perfume so they don't have to bathe very often. I have all the boys I left the states with still with me, thank the Lord, and hope to bring them back with me. They are from Little Rock and New Orleans.
I have plenty to eat and wear, so do not think we are ill treated for we are not, although at times when we are away from camp food gets very low and our clothes get wet and cold, but there is always plenty for us in camp. Our bread is as hard as a rock and lost of the boys make a hole through it and carry a loaf strung on their backs, but it is very wholesome when you dampen enough to bite it. Our canned meat is composed of meat and potatoes and is very good when you warm it up. As for cakes and candies, they are things to be fought over and are rare, but we get along without them. We have plenty of tobacco, Bull Durham and Star, but I am lucky, some one sends me a carton of canned cigarettes every once in a while so I have plenty. I think it is the Col. Carter of the Med. Corps, but I ask no questions and they keep coming.
I have had one promotion and expect to get another some day. Wont it be fine to get a gold leaf instead of two bars as I now wear.
You people think you are having a hard time, but just think of these poor people who follow us up to see their homes all in a mess and not even a chicken left, and sometimes only a hole where they once had a home. I have seen some of the old forts Caesar built in his time.The roads in this country are for the most part very good and our auto can go anywhere, although some of the new roads are not so good as the old ones, which are of solid stone which has a bed of some 15 to 18 inches deep.
I have just given two of my boys a pass and twenty dollars and they will go some ten or fifteen miles back to a Y.M.C.A. canteen and buy us some goodies. Just think of it, they will hike all the way over roads filled with cannon and ammunition trains and then to-night will be back, and, maybe, I will have a box of candies and some ink. I have a little ink but we save that to address our letters with. This is a hard life and we are getting to like it.
I see, most every day, air battles and they are interesting, but at night we can only hear the popping of their machine guns and I am like a woman, I want to see.
The big guns are shaking the ground this morning and their roar is something awful, but those close are friends, thank goodness.
I am sending you a clipping and I saw these boys as they started on their charge, so you can figure where I was, as I can not tell you, but I can tell you that I am in the center of this push and the Hun is surely being pushed, but we are paying for it.
Well I must go to work.
Good luck and a safe return is our goodbye for over here, so I wrote it before I thought and will let it stand as it means lots to us, more than you can think. As ever, one of the Springdale boys who is doing his bit,
Capt. Otto Christian,
114 Engineers A. E. F., France
Via New York.
NOTES: Dr. Christian departed from Hoboken, NJ on August 22, 1918 onboard the Wilhelmina. He was serving in the Detachment Medical Department, 114th Engineers. He departed Brest, France on August 24, 1919 onboard the Mobile. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ on September 3, 1919. He was serving in the Medical Department, 18th Infantry 1st Division. The clipping he mentioned referred to the famous “Lost Battalion.”
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
In No Man's Land, Oct. 11, 1918.
Judge and Mother Berry and all the other Berries:
Well, how are you people? I am fine and dandy am living in a dugout up on the Front. I have passed over ground held so long by the Hun and it is beyond my powers of description but it is one mass of shell holes and bomb holes, I saw one hole some 100 yds. wide and 50 feet deep, these large holes are made by the planes dropping bombs from great hights and they sink deep into the ground and as they are the highest explosives they sure do blow some ground. I have been in a few German dug outs but as it is dangerous on account of their leaving traps we do not go in many and they are simply great, they have pianos, fine beds, electric lights, range stoves and most anything you could wish for, they left their wine cellar behind and I do wish I dared get a bottle, I think it would taste good this morning but it might be loaded in more ways than one. I don't know just what to tell you. I have been over the most of France. It is a very pretty country, but their ways are so far behind ours. They all live in stone houses without ventilation and they have plenty of powder and perfume so they don't have to bathe very often. I have all the boys I left the states with still with me, thank the Lord, and hope to bring them back with me. They are from Little Rock and New Orleans.
I have plenty to eat and wear, so do not think we are ill treated for we are not, although at times when we are away from camp food gets very low and our clothes get wet and cold, but there is always plenty for us in camp. Our bread is as hard as a rock and lost of the boys make a hole through it and carry a loaf strung on their backs, but it is very wholesome when you dampen enough to bite it. Our canned meat is composed of meat and potatoes and is very good when you warm it up. As for cakes and candies, they are things to be fought over and are rare, but we get along without them. We have plenty of tobacco, Bull Durham and Star, but I am lucky, some one sends me a carton of canned cigarettes every once in a while so I have plenty. I think it is the Col. Carter of the Med. Corps, but I ask no questions and they keep coming.
I have had one promotion and expect to get another some day. Wont it be fine to get a gold leaf instead of two bars as I now wear.
You people think you are having a hard time, but just think of these poor people who follow us up to see their homes all in a mess and not even a chicken left, and sometimes only a hole where they once had a home. I have seen some of the old forts Caesar built in his time.The roads in this country are for the most part very good and our auto can go anywhere, although some of the new roads are not so good as the old ones, which are of solid stone which has a bed of some 15 to 18 inches deep.
I have just given two of my boys a pass and twenty dollars and they will go some ten or fifteen miles back to a Y.M.C.A. canteen and buy us some goodies. Just think of it, they will hike all the way over roads filled with cannon and ammunition trains and then to-night will be back, and, maybe, I will have a box of candies and some ink. I have a little ink but we save that to address our letters with. This is a hard life and we are getting to like it.
I see, most every day, air battles and they are interesting, but at night we can only hear the popping of their machine guns and I am like a woman, I want to see.
The big guns are shaking the ground this morning and their roar is something awful, but those close are friends, thank goodness.
I am sending you a clipping and I saw these boys as they started on their charge, so you can figure where I was, as I can not tell you, but I can tell you that I am in the center of this push and the Hun is surely being pushed, but we are paying for it.
Well I must go to work.
Good luck and a safe return is our goodbye for over here, so I wrote it before I thought and will let it stand as it means lots to us, more than you can think. As ever, one of the Springdale boys who is doing his bit,
Capt. Otto Christian,
114 Engineers A. E. F., France
Via New York.
NOTES: Dr. Christian departed from Hoboken, NJ on August 22, 1918 onboard the Wilhelmina. He was serving in the Detachment Medical Department, 114th Engineers. He departed Brest, France on August 24, 1919 onboard the Mobile. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ on September 3, 1919. He was serving in the Medical Department, 18th Infantry 1st Division. The clipping he mentioned referred to the famous “Lost Battalion.”
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD