TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ROGERS DEMOCRAT MAY 16, 1918 P. 1
Somewhere in France, March 25
Dear Brother:
I received your letter of January 21st and sure was glad to hear from you. I have just completed a trip across France and sure got to see some grand sights. I saw some old towns that had houses five hundred years old in them and I saw the town where Julius Ceaser had his great army. In these cities they have one wall about ten feet high and then comes a big stream of water that runs all around the city and then comes another wall twenty feet high and it has some of the largest gates I ever saw, and believe me, it sure would be hard to take.
Well John I am right up on the front now and I have been quite busy lately looking out for those things that the soldiers like, and they have issued us some new hats, but I can’t call it a hat. I call it a frying pan, but it sure is a fine thing when a big shell hits the earth and tears it up and it begins to come down on your head. The American soldiers are the best fighters in France. They just walk right through and begin to take the bacon. The soldiers sure do like to fight with the Germans with their bayonets for the Germans are afraid of a boyonet and when they see the Americans coming they shoot a little and then they hike for the trenches.
Must close. I received your Christmas present and I wrote you a letter but I guess it went to the bottom of the sea. I thank you ever so much. Write soon and send me a newspaper every once in a while.
As ever,
BILLIE NANCE,
M.T. Co. No. 2, H.Q.T.S. Div. A.E.F.
NOTES: Billie Nance was writing to his brother J. W. Nance. Billie was a former resident of Rogers, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON
Somewhere in France, March 25
Dear Brother:
I received your letter of January 21st and sure was glad to hear from you. I have just completed a trip across France and sure got to see some grand sights. I saw some old towns that had houses five hundred years old in them and I saw the town where Julius Ceaser had his great army. In these cities they have one wall about ten feet high and then comes a big stream of water that runs all around the city and then comes another wall twenty feet high and it has some of the largest gates I ever saw, and believe me, it sure would be hard to take.
Well John I am right up on the front now and I have been quite busy lately looking out for those things that the soldiers like, and they have issued us some new hats, but I can’t call it a hat. I call it a frying pan, but it sure is a fine thing when a big shell hits the earth and tears it up and it begins to come down on your head. The American soldiers are the best fighters in France. They just walk right through and begin to take the bacon. The soldiers sure do like to fight with the Germans with their bayonets for the Germans are afraid of a boyonet and when they see the Americans coming they shoot a little and then they hike for the trenches.
Must close. I received your Christmas present and I wrote you a letter but I guess it went to the bottom of the sea. I thank you ever so much. Write soon and send me a newspaper every once in a while.
As ever,
BILLIE NANCE,
M.T. Co. No. 2, H.Q.T.S. Div. A.E.F.
NOTES: Billie Nance was writing to his brother J. W. Nance. Billie was a former resident of Rogers, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON