TRANSCRIBED FROM THE CARLISLE INDEPENDENT JANUARY 2, 1919 P. 2
Miss Anna Jessup,
Dear Sister:
I thought I would take a little time off and write you a letter as I haven't written in quite awhile.
Guess you have received the card that I sent, and know that I am back in the states.
It is just as hot down here as it was when I left except the nights are a little cooler and all fall oranges are ripe. When I came down here from Philadelphia the summer oranges and limes were ripe. They have them the year round right off the trees.
I don't know whether I will get home for Xmas or not, but I hardly think I will. They are not letting anybody loose yet, but they are giving a few furloughs and I am going to get one but don't know how soon.
They are building this camp up like they were going to keep us here a few years.
Guess I had better not write very much or I will not have anything to tell you when I get home.
I will tell you where I was and how I got along. We went across on an English boat named the Lapland and the English did the cooking. The grub was not fit to eat and our quarters were not fit for a hog to stay in.
We had "flu" going over. I was sick five days. Eleven men died out of our bunch of little over two hundred. There were over three thousand soldiers on the same ship, several of whom died with the "flu."
There were fourteen ships in convoy and a few sub destroyers went out three days from the states with us. Then some met us two or three days out from England. We landed at Liverpool, took the train there, went to Southampton and spent five days; then took a boat there and went to Calais France, where we had a camp sixteen miles south west of there. I stayed there about three weeks then a part of our bunch went up to Belgium to an old German aviation field It was about half way between Bruges and Ghent. We were seven kilometers from the lines, shells flew over us the first night. We also had an air raid on the camp one night, old Fritz dropped a few bombs around the camp the first one hit pretty close. It seemed as though it raised me off of the bunk about six inches and it made a hole in the ground fifteen feet across and six feet in depth.
The first day we were here three fellows dug them a dugout just big enough for three and the night they bombed the camp these three fellows ran for their dugout and when they got there there were nine already in it and it was dug just big enough for three. Some of the boys didn't get back until daylight next morning and it was just 11:30 p.m. when they bombed us. I did not run for I didn't see any place to run. Those Dutchmen had the camp lit up as light as day.
When we went to take the transport to come home we traveled three days and nights in box cars and left St. Nazaire, France on the 29th of November. It took sixteen days to come back. We were on an old German ship that they called the Rhine. Since the U.S. captured it they call it the Susquehanna. We wouldn't have been so long coming back but there was an eight day storm. We landed at Newport News, Va.
Guess I had better quit as I am about to go to sleep. I am well and feeling fine. I hope this letter will find all of you the same.
Your Brother,
John Jessup.
4th Sqd. Marine Atl.
Miama, Fla.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Miss Anna Jessup,
Dear Sister:
I thought I would take a little time off and write you a letter as I haven't written in quite awhile.
Guess you have received the card that I sent, and know that I am back in the states.
It is just as hot down here as it was when I left except the nights are a little cooler and all fall oranges are ripe. When I came down here from Philadelphia the summer oranges and limes were ripe. They have them the year round right off the trees.
I don't know whether I will get home for Xmas or not, but I hardly think I will. They are not letting anybody loose yet, but they are giving a few furloughs and I am going to get one but don't know how soon.
They are building this camp up like they were going to keep us here a few years.
Guess I had better not write very much or I will not have anything to tell you when I get home.
I will tell you where I was and how I got along. We went across on an English boat named the Lapland and the English did the cooking. The grub was not fit to eat and our quarters were not fit for a hog to stay in.
We had "flu" going over. I was sick five days. Eleven men died out of our bunch of little over two hundred. There were over three thousand soldiers on the same ship, several of whom died with the "flu."
There were fourteen ships in convoy and a few sub destroyers went out three days from the states with us. Then some met us two or three days out from England. We landed at Liverpool, took the train there, went to Southampton and spent five days; then took a boat there and went to Calais France, where we had a camp sixteen miles south west of there. I stayed there about three weeks then a part of our bunch went up to Belgium to an old German aviation field It was about half way between Bruges and Ghent. We were seven kilometers from the lines, shells flew over us the first night. We also had an air raid on the camp one night, old Fritz dropped a few bombs around the camp the first one hit pretty close. It seemed as though it raised me off of the bunk about six inches and it made a hole in the ground fifteen feet across and six feet in depth.
The first day we were here three fellows dug them a dugout just big enough for three and the night they bombed the camp these three fellows ran for their dugout and when they got there there were nine already in it and it was dug just big enough for three. Some of the boys didn't get back until daylight next morning and it was just 11:30 p.m. when they bombed us. I did not run for I didn't see any place to run. Those Dutchmen had the camp lit up as light as day.
When we went to take the transport to come home we traveled three days and nights in box cars and left St. Nazaire, France on the 29th of November. It took sixteen days to come back. We were on an old German ship that they called the Rhine. Since the U.S. captured it they call it the Susquehanna. We wouldn't have been so long coming back but there was an eight day storm. We landed at Newport News, Va.
Guess I had better quit as I am about to go to sleep. I am well and feeling fine. I hope this letter will find all of you the same.
Your Brother,
John Jessup.
4th Sqd. Marine Atl.
Miama, Fla.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD