Page 55 - Elderdice1917

lID. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1918.

EXPERIENCES OF AN' ARTILLERY. is a lively sector. But for all that
MAN AT THE FRONT II Fritz" held me up for 2 hours trying

From The I,etters ot Lieut H. L. E- to go over a road till I got tired wait.
ing and went thru his little barrage in.
derd1ce, 52nd Artillery Brigade
.I Son ot Rev. and Mrs. H. L. spite of him. I had myoId horse back
and knew what he could do, so I man.
, , ' , E1derdice, ot This City aged to slip thru. I had a narrow es.
-I ,
,, "I cape. .A little brick wall was all that
Things are fairly quiet here now, but saved me. I 'surely have reason to be
I ~ ,.. I \ the last few days we have kept pretty very thankful.
Warm. "Fritz" doesn't bother' us
> y. We have fairly good, quar.ters here
much, but we do 8; plenty to him. I
r, 'f guess he is too busy retreating. I am and may settle for the winter. I have
,I, ~ iliOW living in a Dutchman's dugout a good dugout and stove and if I only
,I ", had a box of apples, I'd be all eet for
from which we chased the Boche a few the winter;
\<
weeks ago. It's not a great shakes of
.
ARTILLERY BRIGADE, a dugout, but r have a stove going day ._,
\ HEADQUARTERS, 52nd FI~~~NARY FORCES.
'f '
AMERICANEXPED
.!'Ind night that makes things pretty

comfortable. Outside it is bitter coI'd.

. " Rain has been falling for four weeks "

211d January, 19I9. \ , and mud is knss deep. r am battery
orientation Officer, which means r have
BELI,ETIN,/ to see to laying the guns; all orienta. ;r ~t
.
~1 I

, d . 1 the American Exped" tion, ,and topographical work, reeon-
ervice of this B!'lga e 1111 concerned; ~, ,[ naisance, and figuring of firing data.
The followin~ recob~sl~:/for the informatIOn of a
tionary Forces 111 pu , )\1" The latter keeps me busy most of the
, .. l' ,time, especially at night .
\r
Arrival in France , I For the Iast two weeks I have been
., "I " on my feet most of the time. Lots of
,) ,times we are up all night and last
, ,night was the first in two weeks I had
Troops: DATE OF AIHlTVAL \ s
0/ a chance to get my clothes off. During
O"lTE OF SAILtNG i
'it our last drive, I had only 1ive hours,
June 30th, 1918 July 12th, J918 r "( •, 1
June 30th, 1911) July 1.2th, 1918 sleep in five days. For a week r didn't
Hdqrs., 52nd F"!eld. Artillery Brigade July 12th, 1918 " ,
104th Field Art!lIelY June 3Uth, 1918
.June 18th, 191~ I
june 6th, 191~ .June 27th, 'J9JH
10th Field Art!lIery , Tune 14th, 1918 June liith, 1\J18 1
june Gth, HJi8
.lU6th Field Ar.hJ1er~frain ' ,'\ f see a drop of water to wash with and
lived on hardtack and canned stuff.
110022nndd ATmremncuhn~~~tai'Battery Frequently I tied myself to my horse I•
and slept during the march.
ining Period ,,
Artillery Tra e France, July 17th to August 30th, 19[8.
At Camp de Song, , We did some mighty fine shooting duo

.' ring the last drive and the infantry

TroopS: 'e5l?dndArFt"iieJIledryArtillery Brigade ,All officers'tell us they will go forward any
Hdqrs., ,~ time under the l06th fire.
All
104Ih FI A fIlery All " ) , There is a humorous side to this bus.
105th F!eld • ~tiIlery
. 106th FATi1em:lcdmn(uc>mh~'(' !IIO?nl'tTa)rr3aainttery_ All iness, if you look for it. I was out
102ndrI not long ago at our forward observa. ,,;
, All tion post-a big shell crater. "Fritz"
All evidently smelled a rat, for he sure did

~~2n~ _.vuA.P .~ I~ "
"
~ .1/'7 ., in the
. ( 'V tion .,. 'the 33rd Di~lSIOIl,
Minor Opera f t line sector in Sl1PP~I~t~l~ber2th,lf)18. / open up on that hill. Shells came at \
occupation of rOI~irstAmerican Army, e two a minute. We were out in an open
17th French Corps,
field full of craters so the only thing

", s participating:. " ade All Batt,a " we could do was make for a crater.
110'PP ~')nd Fi.eId ArtIllery Bllg:
, I ,'\112nd I' 011 . Bere my foot·ball experience came in

l

Ho~i~SFi~idArti!lery Entire. Regl111enBt e:t~eriesB, E and I' Ii:lndy, for I sure did make some flying
11 0,!,t1J F.ielldd Ar~I1lery Entire RegIment Jess All
ArhIlerv ., ' .on dives. We were loaded with heavy
IU6th Fie nnl'tion 'Train , f 18th French IllvlSI
telephone instruments and they 'Would
102nd A0mf m[I'onntortIh1' i1oef position iSnepstU.emPPberOlgtOt,h. 1018. .,
occupation Vel'dun, pile all over us. Our actions surely

17th French Corps, , were comjcal. We made a regular game I
out of, it, for we were perfectly safe)
t·ICI.I )ating r: "
•
hooPS par Second Battalion so really enjoyed it. I got a little

109th Field Addle y touch of arsenic gas one day, not bad,

just enough to make me more careful,

so it was .. good thing.

The last of October we withdrew for

a rest camp. But it did not turn out

t,. " to 'be-mueh of a rest for me; for I was

sent back to our last position to recov.

. H. L., son of Dr. and Mrs. H. er some property. I had a pretty

~.~I~:U~~Lieut. . e of the Seminary has ar' j rough time; had to live from hand to ,,
York, with his ,command, I, mouth. Wherever I stopped was home.
rive . the great parade on Tues·
and wHasis IIsIister Miss Dorot hy, went hto But my man can speak French like a
Ndaeyw., Y ork to ~eet, him and see t e , I native and that helped out of 'many

parade. a hole, It took all Our cigarrettes to

get grain for the horses. The French.

J" .r'· , 1es hate to ~art with their grain but

{ will 'do almost anything to get an

.American smoke. After a nice little

! trip (f) of llve days in the saddle, I

, rejoined my battery in the lines. Thie