American Soldiers occupy a trench.  (From American Battlefields of Europe, United State Government Printing Office, 1938.)

Letter #7

 

France, June 28-1918

 

Dear Mother,

 

            I received letters #4 & 5 yesterday and was very happy to hear that everybody and everything was well at home.  I also received letters from Eva and Cousin Maltida.

 

            We were out digging trenches last night and saw or heard two German airships.  We saw one the searchlights were shining on.  We could see the shells busting all around it.  We have got so we can tell the difference between a German and an Allied airship by the sound of the motor.

 

            We are not drilling today so I took a trip to town to see if could get any cookies or candy but they were all sold out.  They were expecting some more in at any minute.

 

            We received our May pay yesterday and believe me some of the boys did certainly need it.  I was one of the few that had some left. 

 

            We were in the reserve trenches for 24 hours last Sunday.  It was more for practice than anything else so everything was very quiet.

 

            It is hard to buy anything here and I think I would give a dollar for a dish of ice cream.  I had a boiled egg and it cost 10¢. 

 

            If you can not send any papers by mail, why cut out the interesting parts and mail them in an envelope.  I bought an English paper today but there is not much news of the US in it.  It was mostly about the war.

 

            We are getting a lot of practice with our automatic rifles every day.  I am having an easier time now that I am a private and I have more time to myself.

 

            Well I can not think of anything more to write about so I will close with

 

                                                                        Love to all

Note:  On today's blog I decided to post an image of one of the actual letters.  They are written in pencil so they are not to legible.  On the back of this letter is the notation "Rcvd July 7, 1918.  thus, it took about three and a half weeks to arrive in Chicago.

TLT

#5

France June 13 – 1918

 

 

Dear Mother:

 

            We received our mail at last.  I received Mabel’s and Anna’s letter of may 9 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 16.   Also received some other letters.  I expect we will receive our mail a good deal more regular after this. 

 

We are at another camp now.  We had to march twenty miles with all our stuff.  We were two days on the road.  We went twelve miles the first day and eight miles the second day.  At the end of the march we had to climb a large hill where our camp was located.

 

            We are near a large sized town (Gamaches) but it is some job climbing up the hill when we return to camp.  We were on a hike today to the rifle range.

 

            I receive a letter from John Dahl telling me that he had been in the hospital for about six weeks. 

 

            There is one thing lacking in this town and that is a movie theater.  I have not seen a movie since we were at Camp Upton.

 

            I am glad to hear that you received the insurance policy.  It was a long time coming but I suppose they had so many to make out that it took quite a while.

 

            Last night we had a band concert by a British Band.

 

            I am pretty sure Enoch Hansen is over here some place so I think I will write him a letter.

 

            I am feeling fine and I hope you are also.  This life seems to agree with me as I am just as fat as ever.

 

            Well there is nothing more that I can write so I will close with

 

                                                                        Love to all

                                                                                    Theo

 

#4                                                                                                            Somewhere in France

                                                                                                                        June 9 –1918

 

Dear Mother:

 

            This is my third Sunday in France and believe me it certainly looks like Sunday as everything is nice and quiet.  If I was in Chicago I suppose I would be over at the park looking at a ball game.  Everything is lovely here and I am in the best of health.  The weather is fine and there is just enough breeze blowing to keep it from being to[o] warm.

 

            We were on a hike yesterday afternoon for about three and a half hours.  We passed through about five small towns.  It would have been fine and dandy if it was not for the hills but I suppose we will get used to them in time.

 

Has Mabel got all of her garden planted yet?  I wish you could see all of the gardens they have here and the way things grow.  While we were on the train we could see strawberries growing along the railroad track.

 

Since I have been here I have seen very few wagons that have four wheels, most of them have two wheels.  The horses and cows are all very large.  I have never seen such nice cattle as I have seen here.

 

I have not received any mail yet but I think we will get it pretty soon.  I do not know what is going on in the world as I very seldom see a paper.  Things are very quiet here and I have not heard any shooting for two or three days.

 

            I hope everybody is well at home.  I suppose that Mabel is still working down at the N.W.Y. Co. (Northwestern Yeast Company) yet.

 

I wish I could think of more to write about but as there is nothing going on it is pretty hard.

 

                                                            Love to all

                                                                        Theo

 

PS. Tell Anna the reason she has not receive any letters is because I have no more envelopes addressed to her and she will have to wait until I get a chance to buy some.

 

                                                                        Theo

 

#3                                                                                    Somewhere in France

                                                                                                June 6-1918

 

Dear Mother:

 

            Just a few lines to let you know that I am as well as I can be.  We are having fine weather and as we are outside most of the time we are bound to be healthy.

 

We have daylight until 10 o’clock at night.  There is only one trouble here and that is that they have no candy or anything like [that] to sell in this town.  The town we are in now is very small and has only one or two stores.

 

This afternoon we marched about two or three miles to another town where there was a small stream.  We took a bath and washed our clothes.  I do not think we got very clean as the water was pretty dirty.  It was the first chance we have had to take a bath in over a week.  We do not have the bathing facilities here that we had at Camp Logan.

 

We have not received any mail as yet but I think we will get it in a few days.  I also think we will be paid pretty soon.

 

            Things are very quiet here, a person would not think there was any war in this country at all.  I do not know how things are outside of this camp as I have not seen a paper for some time.

 

I hope you are all well at home and write as often as you can because news is very scarce here.  Well this is all I can think of right now so I will close with

 

                                                                        Love to all

                                                                                    Theo            

Note:  This letter was probably written from a training site at Eaucourt, NE of Amiens.  The division is still be trained by British and Australian officers.

#2                                                                                    Somewhere in France

 

Dear Mabel:

 

            We arrived here after a 36 hour ride on the train and a hike of about nine mile[s].  We are billeted in a small town.  We are sleeping in old barns.  The look as if they were about a hundred years old.

 

            This is certainly beautiful country and everything is kept nice and neat.  I was always under the impression that France was a crowded country but there is an awful lot of open country and pretty near all of it is cultivated.  You talk about prices being high in the U.S. but you ought to be here and pay 90¢ for a can of peaches.

 

            At the last camp we were at, we bought fresh strawberries and they were the largest and sweetest I ever ate in my life.  I paid 20¢ for a whole hat full.

 

            I am feeling fine and will do my best to stay that way.  Where we are now we can hear the roar of the cannon.

 

            How did the people of Chicago spend decoration day.  We were riding on train pretty near all day.

 

            I do not know what to write about because we have to be very careful what we write.

 

            I have not received any mail since we left New York.  When you address my mail be sure to write American E.F. because there is another army over [here] with the same initials.

 

            We had fine weather since we arrived, it has not rained a bit.  It is rather damp at night on account of the heavy dew.

 

            I did not make any allotment because if I want to buy anything extra it cost so much that I may need the money.

 

            I hope you are all keeping well.  I suppose you have your garden planted by this time.  Wherever you go here you see gardens and everything seems to be growing fine.

 

Well this is all I can think of now.

 

                                                            Love to all

                                                                        Theo

 

P.S. This letter #2.  Please some newspaper

just the part with the news in it.

 

 

Note:  This letter was probably written from Eaucourt near Amiens.  The regiment traveled from Brest in freight cars called ‘40 and 8’s’ – they could carry forty men or eight horses.  They detrained at Oisement and marched to their training area at Eaucourt.  The division is now on the British front and will be receiving further training under British and Australian officers.  (From The History of the Thirty-Third Division, A.E.F. Frederic L. Huidekoper, Springfield Il; IL State Hist. Lib. 1921, Vol III)

 

There was a question posted about censorship.  During hostilities it is common practice to impose censorship on outgoing correspondence.  Soldiers could not reveal their locations or other information that might be helpful to the enemy.  Apparently Theo was very careful abut this because none of the letters showed any information deleted by the censors.

 

TLT