TRANSCRIBED FROM THE DAILY ARKANSAS GAZETTE NOVEMBER 25, 1918 P. 3
It seems damn queer to be writing to an undertaker under these conditions, though, to be sure it is a pleasure and not a business or necessary affair. Tell John Healey that it has been pretty close sometimes, but we merely use the damp earth on cases where they don’t come back. An undertaker over here is a nonessential.
I have had the big ones burst within a few yards of me, but by hitting the ground I have kept going. Some of our men have been killed and some wounded, and so far I consider myself very lucky. I have been on the front for over three weeks, and suppose I have seen about everything they pull off, but as yet I haven’t been over the top.
The other day I was driving along in a truck just behind our lines and the Germans heard us, although because of the woods, they couldn’t see us. All of a sudden shrapnel and gas shells began bursting all around us. We hurriedly put on our gas masks and let the driver take the truck out of that part of the wood and continued with our work. As the shelling soon stopped I suppose they thought we had gone with the truck.
I have seen as many as 12 airplanes battling at the same time, and twice they fought right over our heads. Talk about hitting the trenches, we certainly gave them the earth as well as the air.
One soon gets tired of this, however, and on quiet days, when one gets to thinking of home and, well, everything, it gets pretty hard. We don’t expect to be over here forever and it looks now, we may be coming back to the United States pretty soon. At present we have things along our whole line in pretty good shape and if the enemy refuses to withdraw its troops, it won’t take us long to push “em over.”
NOTES: William Franklin Clements was writing to C. Albert Roth of Healey and Roth in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was born on February 23, 1891 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and died on October 15, 1945 om Little Rock, Arkansas. He was described as being tall and slender with blue eyes and blonde hair. He is buried in the Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
It seems damn queer to be writing to an undertaker under these conditions, though, to be sure it is a pleasure and not a business or necessary affair. Tell John Healey that it has been pretty close sometimes, but we merely use the damp earth on cases where they don’t come back. An undertaker over here is a nonessential.
I have had the big ones burst within a few yards of me, but by hitting the ground I have kept going. Some of our men have been killed and some wounded, and so far I consider myself very lucky. I have been on the front for over three weeks, and suppose I have seen about everything they pull off, but as yet I haven’t been over the top.
The other day I was driving along in a truck just behind our lines and the Germans heard us, although because of the woods, they couldn’t see us. All of a sudden shrapnel and gas shells began bursting all around us. We hurriedly put on our gas masks and let the driver take the truck out of that part of the wood and continued with our work. As the shelling soon stopped I suppose they thought we had gone with the truck.
I have seen as many as 12 airplanes battling at the same time, and twice they fought right over our heads. Talk about hitting the trenches, we certainly gave them the earth as well as the air.
One soon gets tired of this, however, and on quiet days, when one gets to thinking of home and, well, everything, it gets pretty hard. We don’t expect to be over here forever and it looks now, we may be coming back to the United States pretty soon. At present we have things along our whole line in pretty good shape and if the enemy refuses to withdraw its troops, it won’t take us long to push “em over.”
NOTES: William Franklin Clements was writing to C. Albert Roth of Healey and Roth in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was born on February 23, 1891 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and died on October 15, 1945 om Little Rock, Arkansas. He was described as being tall and slender with blue eyes and blonde hair. He is buried in the Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT