[Letter to Ellen, June 28, 1918]
 
[American YMCA logo, ON ACTIVE SERVICE
WITH THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE]

June 28 1918

Dear Ellen,

Must be nearly three weeks since I wrote last.  They gave me a handful 
of letters last night, three from you, one each from Mame Aunt Ellen 
and Blodwen Stephens.  The last of the 'Popular Magazines' arrived last 
week, also the papers and the 'L Digests.'  You folks don't realize 
what awful dope the war correspondents are serving, in the 
'Times-Leader,' especially.  One of it's headlines told of an 'Awful 
bombardment by American troops,' in Picardy, how the shells whizzed 
and the sky, at night, flared like a furnace- and that "last night, 
two[underlined] houses were demolished in Cantigny."  I am 

(2)
sending a 'Herald' that tells a little more about Cantigny and mentions 
'D' company of our regiment.  Anyway, the 'Leader' writer said that 
'This happens every night,' but we have been watching the night skies 
for quite some time and haven't noticed the furnace part of it.  It is 
more like heat lightening and even when things were at their worst, it 
didn't seem to fit that description.  Of course, a big gun will light 
the vicinity for a moment but then the darkness is worse than ever.  We 
had to pass a battery, to get to work, for a while, and no one cared to 
linger, although they were only '75's, because their bark is so 
deafening and the bright flash made it hard to see, for a few moments.  
There's another good reason for not lingering near a battery when they 
are doing their nights

(3)
work and that is the things that are liable to come, shrieking, out of 
the sky and make a mess of things.  The guns are generally placed along 
a roadside where the banks are high and shoot over the top, so, when 
when the Germans shoot back, they rarely hit the guns but the road 
suffers.  For the last few weeks, I have been working around a small 
supply-depot, where they keep barbed-wire, lumber for dug-outs, tools, 
etc.  Yesterday, a order was brought in for a lot of picks and shovels, 
by two M. Corps men from a small field hospital near here, who said 
that the Huns had tried to bomb the place although a big white cross is 
painted on the roof.  Wonder what they expect to gain by it?
A couple of hours ago, four more letters came, one from Ma and 

(4)
the rest from you.  Joe Erbe had written "Hello, Bob" on the back of 
one.  You'll have to say "Hello" for me.  That is a pretty good 
snapshot of Ma, Pa, the flag and the pup.  I'd like to have some more 
photos of the place but there is no chance whatever to get any taken 
over here.  I hope Mame likes that Middletown place but I doubt it.  
It's going to be lonesome.  Some of the boys who came over in June are 
wearing two service stripes and we are due for another in August but it 
looks as if we would have two or three more when we get home.  You 
ought to see all the French carry.  Don't bother about those excitable 
folks in the theater.  Rob. 


[Transcribed by Lauren Kanne on 5/27/2009.]