TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ASHLEY COUNTY EAGLE JANUARY 30, 1919 P. 1.
Editor Eagle:
We wish to let our friends know through your paper that we have lived through this “hell on earth,” and helped to gain the greatest victory ever won. We were on the front from the 23rd of August until the great day of victory, with the exception of a few days transferring from one front to the other, and were in some of the hottest fights; and never did we lose a day from start to finish. War is not what some people, who have never had the pleasure of seeing a battle, think it is. The stories that you read in books and papers make things appear that life on the front is not so bad. Well, if ducking from shells about the size of a good back stick for some big old fire place, facing machine guns, sleeping in the mud, eating when you can, and fighting every day, is pleasure, then we’ve had our share. It must be pleasure for what it takes to put the Huns on the hike, and the Americans have it. But who wouldn’t make it hot for a Hun, when you see your best friend give his life for you and his country. Then you want to fight and fight hard. We are well and enjoying life now, and hope to be home with our many friends before long, when we can tell the rest of life as a soldier in France, and what it means to be a soldier on the front. We hope to have a great meeting with our friends in America some day.
Sergt. R. L. Knight,
J. V. Willis,
With the American troops of occupation in Germany.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY KOBE HEAGERTY
Editor Eagle:
We wish to let our friends know through your paper that we have lived through this “hell on earth,” and helped to gain the greatest victory ever won. We were on the front from the 23rd of August until the great day of victory, with the exception of a few days transferring from one front to the other, and were in some of the hottest fights; and never did we lose a day from start to finish. War is not what some people, who have never had the pleasure of seeing a battle, think it is. The stories that you read in books and papers make things appear that life on the front is not so bad. Well, if ducking from shells about the size of a good back stick for some big old fire place, facing machine guns, sleeping in the mud, eating when you can, and fighting every day, is pleasure, then we’ve had our share. It must be pleasure for what it takes to put the Huns on the hike, and the Americans have it. But who wouldn’t make it hot for a Hun, when you see your best friend give his life for you and his country. Then you want to fight and fight hard. We are well and enjoying life now, and hope to be home with our many friends before long, when we can tell the rest of life as a soldier in France, and what it means to be a soldier on the front. We hope to have a great meeting with our friends in America some day.
Sergt. R. L. Knight,
J. V. Willis,
With the American troops of occupation in Germany.
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY KOBE HEAGERTY