TRANSCRIBED FROM ARKANSAS GAZETTE SEPTEMBER 29, 1918 p 14
Dear Mother:
I have not written home for about a month now, but I am alive and well.
We have been going like thunder, fire a few shots and move up a mile or two. We have averaged about a mile a day advance in the last month’s fighting. We were relieved of fighting yesterday and came back behind the lines for a rest. My, but it is grand where you don’t know the country is at war. We realized it very strongly a few days ago when they got 31 men, 23 horses and two officers at one clip. Just think, a month on the firing line during the hottest part of the war in the hottest sector in the whole front, and only four men wounded and none killed, then to give us a lick like that when we were beginning to look for relief. How it happened was this way: Four airplanes came over us as we were pulling into position. They dropped a bomb apiece at the same time, circled about and went like rip for the German lines. Only four or five of these men were wounded fatally and only one killed outright. Few asked me if I ever see airplanes. Tell him I saw about 240 in one fleet go over from our lines to the German lines. They were as high as you could see and as far as you could see. We counted 170 and got tired and stopped. I was told afterward that there were 240 of them.
Charles T. Holmes
Battery B, 76th F. A.
NOTES: Charles Troy Holmes was writing to his parents Mr. and Mrs. Isaac William Holmes of Ashdown, Little River County. He was born June 12, 1900 and grew up at Ashdown with his brother Few and sister Francis. He enlisted February 6, 1918, and was discharged July 30, 1919. When he was discharged from the military he returned to Ashdown. In later years, he moved to Texas. He died December 30, 1986 and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Gillespie County, Texas.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
Dear Mother:
I have not written home for about a month now, but I am alive and well.
We have been going like thunder, fire a few shots and move up a mile or two. We have averaged about a mile a day advance in the last month’s fighting. We were relieved of fighting yesterday and came back behind the lines for a rest. My, but it is grand where you don’t know the country is at war. We realized it very strongly a few days ago when they got 31 men, 23 horses and two officers at one clip. Just think, a month on the firing line during the hottest part of the war in the hottest sector in the whole front, and only four men wounded and none killed, then to give us a lick like that when we were beginning to look for relief. How it happened was this way: Four airplanes came over us as we were pulling into position. They dropped a bomb apiece at the same time, circled about and went like rip for the German lines. Only four or five of these men were wounded fatally and only one killed outright. Few asked me if I ever see airplanes. Tell him I saw about 240 in one fleet go over from our lines to the German lines. They were as high as you could see and as far as you could see. We counted 170 and got tired and stopped. I was told afterward that there were 240 of them.
Charles T. Holmes
Battery B, 76th F. A.
NOTES: Charles Troy Holmes was writing to his parents Mr. and Mrs. Isaac William Holmes of Ashdown, Little River County. He was born June 12, 1900 and grew up at Ashdown with his brother Few and sister Francis. He enlisted February 6, 1918, and was discharged July 30, 1919. When he was discharged from the military he returned to Ashdown. In later years, he moved to Texas. He died December 30, 1986 and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Gillespie County, Texas.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT