TRANSCRIBED FROM THE NEWPORT DAILY INDEPENDENT FEBRUARY 8, 1919 P. 1
As the bombs and machine gun bullets have stopped whizzing by I will take time to write you. We had lots of hardships to undergo while on the front, but most of them are over now – the ones we dreaded most of all – and I sincerely hope they are over for all time, for really I had all of that kind of music I could stand up to. I did more laying down in a shell hole than anything else. The boys who did not have to come over here are lucky dogs, and the ones that did come and get out alive are doubly lucky and the good God is on their side. The Germans are treating us very nice – better than I thought it possible for them to do. We are now across the Rhine, in their country and still on the front line. Don’t know how much longer we will have to stay, but I pray it won’t be long. We are in Paradise though, in this army of occupation, to compare to what it was on the firing line, which was worse than hell. It rains here all winter and summer thrown in. I don’t like this side of the ocean at all, but like Germany better than France – it is a better country. Tell everybody hello and tell them I hope to see them some time between now and the next new year.
Yours truly,
Robert Torian
Company D, 128th Infantry, A.E.F.
NOTES: Robert Dean Torian wrote this partial letter from Germany to his cousin Albert Hite of Auvergne, Arkansas. Torian was born on April 9, 1889 in Weldon, Arkansas and died on September 13, 1971. He is buried in the Sand Hill Cemetery in Auvergne. He departed Newport News, Va. on August 6, 1918 onboard the Huron. He was serving as a Private in Co. F 153rd Inf 39th Division. He departed Brest, France on April 17, 1919 onboard the George Washington. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ on May 5, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co. D 128th Infantry.
TRANSCRIBED BY SHANNON SOUTHARD
As the bombs and machine gun bullets have stopped whizzing by I will take time to write you. We had lots of hardships to undergo while on the front, but most of them are over now – the ones we dreaded most of all – and I sincerely hope they are over for all time, for really I had all of that kind of music I could stand up to. I did more laying down in a shell hole than anything else. The boys who did not have to come over here are lucky dogs, and the ones that did come and get out alive are doubly lucky and the good God is on their side. The Germans are treating us very nice – better than I thought it possible for them to do. We are now across the Rhine, in their country and still on the front line. Don’t know how much longer we will have to stay, but I pray it won’t be long. We are in Paradise though, in this army of occupation, to compare to what it was on the firing line, which was worse than hell. It rains here all winter and summer thrown in. I don’t like this side of the ocean at all, but like Germany better than France – it is a better country. Tell everybody hello and tell them I hope to see them some time between now and the next new year.
Yours truly,
Robert Torian
Company D, 128th Infantry, A.E.F.
NOTES: Robert Dean Torian wrote this partial letter from Germany to his cousin Albert Hite of Auvergne, Arkansas. Torian was born on April 9, 1889 in Weldon, Arkansas and died on September 13, 1971. He is buried in the Sand Hill Cemetery in Auvergne. He departed Newport News, Va. on August 6, 1918 onboard the Huron. He was serving as a Private in Co. F 153rd Inf 39th Division. He departed Brest, France on April 17, 1919 onboard the George Washington. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ on May 5, 1919. He was serving as a Private in Co. D 128th Infantry.
TRANSCRIBED BY SHANNON SOUTHARD