TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT JUNE 8, 1918 P. 2
We left Brooklyn on February 23 for Newport News, and after two days started for France. After being out five days, a storm struckout and lasted for about seven days. It surely was awful. We had to ite our tables to the wall, and even then we couldn’t get along nicely until we arrived in the mouth of the English channel, when a submarine came up and started trouble. There were 32 ships in our bunch and all of us went to work, each ship having one or two guns, then our torpedo boats dropped depth bombs and after three hours we thought we had destroyed the sub, but later we learned that it had sunk ships after leaving us.
The Germans are after the English and seem to be afraid of the Americans, for they are too good shots and won’t run.
On our return trip, when about two days out, we were again attacked, this time by three subs. Two of our ships fired 50 shots, without stopping, from five-inch guns. It certainly was some battle, but we never think about going down. We got away, though the subs followed us for five hours, but since that we had no trouble.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by William Dewey Kelly to an unidentified friend. He was born on July 1, 1898 in Tippah County, Mississippi and died on April 7, 1979. He is buried in the Pine Crest Cemetery in Mena, Arkansas. He was a crew member of the USS LaHoe and enlisted in the Navy on May 25, 1917 and was discharged on July 23, 1920.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
We left Brooklyn on February 23 for Newport News, and after two days started for France. After being out five days, a storm struckout and lasted for about seven days. It surely was awful. We had to ite our tables to the wall, and even then we couldn’t get along nicely until we arrived in the mouth of the English channel, when a submarine came up and started trouble. There were 32 ships in our bunch and all of us went to work, each ship having one or two guns, then our torpedo boats dropped depth bombs and after three hours we thought we had destroyed the sub, but later we learned that it had sunk ships after leaving us.
The Germans are after the English and seem to be afraid of the Americans, for they are too good shots and won’t run.
On our return trip, when about two days out, we were again attacked, this time by three subs. Two of our ships fired 50 shots, without stopping, from five-inch guns. It certainly was some battle, but we never think about going down. We got away, though the subs followed us for five hours, but since that we had no trouble.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by William Dewey Kelly to an unidentified friend. He was born on July 1, 1898 in Tippah County, Mississippi and died on April 7, 1979. He is buried in the Pine Crest Cemetery in Mena, Arkansas. He was a crew member of the USS LaHoe and enlisted in the Navy on May 25, 1917 and was discharged on July 23, 1920.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT