TRANSCRIBED FROM THE PINE BLUFF DAILY GRAPHIC DECEMBER 21, 1918 P. 31
We had a fine trip to Washington, possed Review there, and sailed from Hoboken the 10th of September 1917, on an English vessel, R. M. S. Carpathia. We were twenty-two days on board the ship, landed in Glasgow Scotland on the 2nd day of October. From there we went by rail to South Hampton, England, where we remained three days for a rest, we then crossed the English Channel and arrived in France October 6th at Le Havre and the following day we boarded a little French train, the cars of which were no larger than a piano box. We were on this train three days, then “hiked” about twenty miles to a town called Columbey La Belle, which was about twenty miles from the Toul front, but Fritz didn’t send any shells that way and his seventy-five mile gun wasn’t working then, so our only trouble was air raids, but we had them frequently, on account of the fact that an English Aviation Camp was near. One night the Boche come near getting our kitchen, one bomb was dropped through a two-story house, it went through and into the basement and did not explode. A woman and baby were killed by a piece of timber that broke loose when the bomb came through. Our Regimental Chaplain was in the house at the time, but was not hurt.
During most of the time last winter the Second Regiment of Engineers were engaged in building hospitals, railroads and supply camps. In March, 1918, the Second Bottalion of the Second Engineers were at the Verdun front. They thought then that “war was Hell,” but, when our offensive started in June on the Chateau Thierry, or Aisne front, they thought war was worse than Hell.
We were in Paris on Decoration Day, had a baseball game and a jolly good time. That night we received orders to go to the Front. We started the following morning, rode on Grench trucks about seventy-five miles, then “hiked” about the same distance but everybody was happy, we had plenty of “hard tack” and “corn willie,” but after we had “hiked” a day we had good eats for a while, because the Boche had been advancing on the French along the Front, so all the French people were leaving their homes and everything they had, we were told to go into their houses and use everything just as if it was ours, because the Germans would be using the same in a few days, if we didn’t drive them back. We “hiked” to different points along this Front for five days before we reached the place where we were to make the surprise attack, and during that five days I began to hear and see what I had been reading about because Fritz was sending over a rather warm reception most of the time, and especially at night. Tht 1st of June was the first time I was in a position where I could hear the sweet music of the shells whistling over and, after “hiking” until I wore out two pairs of shoes, we came to the Belleau woods on the morning of June 6th, we went over not “over the top,” because it was all top—there were no trenches there. The Boche had started on an Expedition to Paris and they were going so fast that the French didn’t have time to dig trenches in reserve. It was about six o’clock in the evening when we received orders to be ready in ten minutes, that was my first experience at real fighting, we were used as Infantry there and, within about thirty minutes after we had orders to “go over” many of my good friends had been killed or wounded, however, we gained our objective, we advanced our Front two miles, took five hundred prisoners and sixty machine guns, but we didn’t have to face so much artillery that day, the Germans had been advancing their infantry so fast that they had not had time to move all of their heavy guns up, but I think they had a machine gun to every man. Those machine guns have a record of shooting five hundred shots a minute and I thought at the time that there must be about five hundred machine guns stationed in the direction I was going. Yes, I felt just a little bit shaky at times, it gives one a kind of homesick feeling. A Mississippi boy in my Company remarked, just before we started over, when bullets were clipping grass all around us, that it made him think of every mean thing he had ever done, he even remembered kicking a dog once when he was a small boy and, believe me, boys said good prayers up there who had never prayed before in their lives.
We were on the Front and a mile or two in reserve for thirty-eight days, then went back for five days’ rest, and afterwards came back to Cheateau Thierry, and from there to the Marne and , after the Germans tried for three days to break through our lines, we turned them back and they continued to advanced toward Berlin, instead of Paris, from that time on.
NOTES: Louis Elder Raffety was writing to his father Dr. Linda Raffety of Pine Bluff. He was on born August 8, 1893 in Missouri and died on March 3, 1929 in Memphis, Tennessee. The Tennessee death index has his date of death as March 3, but cemetery records record the date as March 8. He is buried in the Bellwood Cemetery in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas, Pvt serving in the 2 Engr.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
We had a fine trip to Washington, possed Review there, and sailed from Hoboken the 10th of September 1917, on an English vessel, R. M. S. Carpathia. We were twenty-two days on board the ship, landed in Glasgow Scotland on the 2nd day of October. From there we went by rail to South Hampton, England, where we remained three days for a rest, we then crossed the English Channel and arrived in France October 6th at Le Havre and the following day we boarded a little French train, the cars of which were no larger than a piano box. We were on this train three days, then “hiked” about twenty miles to a town called Columbey La Belle, which was about twenty miles from the Toul front, but Fritz didn’t send any shells that way and his seventy-five mile gun wasn’t working then, so our only trouble was air raids, but we had them frequently, on account of the fact that an English Aviation Camp was near. One night the Boche come near getting our kitchen, one bomb was dropped through a two-story house, it went through and into the basement and did not explode. A woman and baby were killed by a piece of timber that broke loose when the bomb came through. Our Regimental Chaplain was in the house at the time, but was not hurt.
During most of the time last winter the Second Regiment of Engineers were engaged in building hospitals, railroads and supply camps. In March, 1918, the Second Bottalion of the Second Engineers were at the Verdun front. They thought then that “war was Hell,” but, when our offensive started in June on the Chateau Thierry, or Aisne front, they thought war was worse than Hell.
We were in Paris on Decoration Day, had a baseball game and a jolly good time. That night we received orders to go to the Front. We started the following morning, rode on Grench trucks about seventy-five miles, then “hiked” about the same distance but everybody was happy, we had plenty of “hard tack” and “corn willie,” but after we had “hiked” a day we had good eats for a while, because the Boche had been advancing on the French along the Front, so all the French people were leaving their homes and everything they had, we were told to go into their houses and use everything just as if it was ours, because the Germans would be using the same in a few days, if we didn’t drive them back. We “hiked” to different points along this Front for five days before we reached the place where we were to make the surprise attack, and during that five days I began to hear and see what I had been reading about because Fritz was sending over a rather warm reception most of the time, and especially at night. Tht 1st of June was the first time I was in a position where I could hear the sweet music of the shells whistling over and, after “hiking” until I wore out two pairs of shoes, we came to the Belleau woods on the morning of June 6th, we went over not “over the top,” because it was all top—there were no trenches there. The Boche had started on an Expedition to Paris and they were going so fast that the French didn’t have time to dig trenches in reserve. It was about six o’clock in the evening when we received orders to be ready in ten minutes, that was my first experience at real fighting, we were used as Infantry there and, within about thirty minutes after we had orders to “go over” many of my good friends had been killed or wounded, however, we gained our objective, we advanced our Front two miles, took five hundred prisoners and sixty machine guns, but we didn’t have to face so much artillery that day, the Germans had been advancing their infantry so fast that they had not had time to move all of their heavy guns up, but I think they had a machine gun to every man. Those machine guns have a record of shooting five hundred shots a minute and I thought at the time that there must be about five hundred machine guns stationed in the direction I was going. Yes, I felt just a little bit shaky at times, it gives one a kind of homesick feeling. A Mississippi boy in my Company remarked, just before we started over, when bullets were clipping grass all around us, that it made him think of every mean thing he had ever done, he even remembered kicking a dog once when he was a small boy and, believe me, boys said good prayers up there who had never prayed before in their lives.
We were on the Front and a mile or two in reserve for thirty-eight days, then went back for five days’ rest, and afterwards came back to Cheateau Thierry, and from there to the Marne and , after the Germans tried for three days to break through our lines, we turned them back and they continued to advanced toward Berlin, instead of Paris, from that time on.
NOTES: Louis Elder Raffety was writing to his father Dr. Linda Raffety of Pine Bluff. He was on born August 8, 1893 in Missouri and died on March 3, 1929 in Memphis, Tennessee. The Tennessee death index has his date of death as March 3, but cemetery records record the date as March 8. He is buried in the Bellwood Cemetery in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His military headstone identifies him as an Arkansas, Pvt serving in the 2 Engr.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT