France Oct 27 – 1918

 

Dear Anna:

 

            I am enclosing a Xmas Package coupon although you may not receive in time to send a package to me.  I do not know of a thing I need that you could send except Gillette Safety razor blades.  If you do not get the coupon in time you could send a blade in each letter you send.

 

            I received a package of candy from London yesterday and there [was] quite a scramble for some among the fellows as we have not been able to buy any for some time.

 

            My face is pretty near well by this time but I can not open my mouth much more than I did before the operation.

 

            I think Ed will like his new job as he will do a lot of travelling and be able to see quite a bit of the country.  The only drawback will be that the cold weather is coming on. 

 

            The weather has been rotten here for the last week as it has rained every day.   About all I do is read and play solitaire all day long.  We have a lot of magazines to read thanks to the Red Cross.  I do more reading in a day here than I did in a month when we were in and out of the trenches.

 

            One of the fellows from our company came here a few days ago and said we would not know anybody when we got back as there was nothing but new men in it now.  I suppose all of the rest are in the hospital either sick or wounded.  We did not have half of our company when we went over the top as it was.

 

            Well news is pretty scarce here so I will close with

                                                           

Love to all

             Theo

Pvt T.F. Thourson

Co A 132^nd Inf

American EF

1390312

 

O.K.

J.C. Johns

2^nd Lt. Inf.

Letter #26

France, Oct. 15 – 1918

 

Dear Mother:

 

            I am still in the hospital but am feeling good.  The only thing that bothers me is my jaw.  I had an Xray taken of it yesterday and will find out what is the matter with it today.  I have a hard time eating as I can only open my mouth about a quarter of an inch.  It was that way ever since I was wounded but I thought it would get alright in time.  There are two more fellows here who were in the same condition but they are alright now.

 

            It begins to look like Germany is ready to quit.  In a short time they will be fighting on their own territory if they keep on retreating.

 

            I have not received any mail since I have been here.  I am living in the hope that I get some before I leave here as it will be some time before I get any after I leave here.  I have not heard how the rest of the company made out in the drive.  There is six of us from the company at this place.  None of us were badly wounded.  It is a lucky thing we were paid before went into the trenches as I would have been short of money.

 

            I have become acquainted with fellows from all over the states since I have been here.  Pretty near every state is represented here.  There are some leaving every day and new ones arriving.

 

            The weather was fine until a couple of days ago when it started to rained and it has rained of[f] and on ever since.  I wish I had more to write about but there is nothing going on here.  I hope everybody is feeling well at home.

 

                                                            Love to all

                                                                        Theo

 

Pvt T.F. Thourson

Co. A. 132^nd Inf   1390312

American E.F.

           

 

(Received 11/5/18)

Letter #25

France Oct 9 – 1918

 

Dear Anna:

 

            I am still in the hospital but I am feeling fine.  They have taken the bandage off the wound and it is pretty near healed.  The only thing that bothers [me] is that I can not open my mouth very much and my jaw is still pretty sore.  I have not received any mail since I have been here.  I expect that I will be out of here in a few days.  I do not know where I will go from here but I suppose I will be back in the company inside of two weeks.

 

            There is not very much to write about as there is not much of anything going on here.  I play cards with Winge and some of the fellows every day. We generally play sixty-six.  Winge has a pretty bad eye.  He has a cataract and has to be operated on.  There is quite a number of fellows here with eye trouble.

 

            The German army will soon be in Germany if they keep on retreating and if they [are] back there the war will soon be over.  There are a lot of rumors of peace talk over here.  We all hope it is true because we do not like the idea of spending the winter in the trenches.  Well this is all I can write as it is all the paper I have.

 

                                                            Love to all

                                                                        Theo

 

Pvt TF Thourson 1390312

Co A.  132^nd Inf

American EF           

(Censors signature)

RE Davis

France Oct 2 – 1918

 

Dear Mother:

 

            Well I am up and around again.  I received new clothes yesterday and I got up today feeling fine.  My wound is getting along fine.  My jaw is still a little bit sore and I can not open my mouth all the way yet but it does not stop me from eating all I can get

 

            It certainly looks like Germany’s finish[ed] pretty soon.  They are getting beat all along the line.  I do not know how many men in my company were hit.  I did not see anybody hit.  There are about six more here in the hospital with me.

 

            We are treated fine.  I have been on what is called light diet and this morning we had boiled eggs.  It was the first time I have had boiled eggs since we left the States.

 

            The people around this part of the country raise mostly grapes and the vines are certainly filled.  I just had some a few minutes ago and they were fine.

 

            I was certainly a tough looking piece of humanity the last couple of [days] as I had a weeks growth of beard.  I got shaved today so I look a good deal better.  There is still quite [a bit] left on the right side of my face as that side is bandaged yet.

 

            I think I will be out of here by next week so you might as well address my letters the same as usual.  If everything goes the way it has the last couple of weeks of the war may end sooner than we expect.  It may end as suddenly as it started.  I hope you are all as well [as] you can be and as well as I am outside of this wound of mine.  Well this is all the news I have to write about this time.

 

                                                            Love to all

                                                                        Theo

 

Pvt TF Thourson 1390312

Co A 132^nd Inf

American EF

 

(Received 11/25/18)

France Sept 29-1918

 

Dear Anna,

 

            I am in a hospital somewhere in France.  I was wounded last Thursday morning about 8:30.  I was shot in the side of the head by a machine gun bullet.  There would have been nothing to it except that the temporal artery was cut.  Inside of about three minutes I was covered with blood.  There was another fellow laying nearby and I called him over and he put his first aid bandage on it and the bleeding stop[ped] almost right away.  The stretcher was nearby and they had captured some German prisoners and they carried me back to the first aid station, then they had to carry me to another place and they looked at the dressing and put me in an ambulance with three other fellows one of them being German.  The ambulance took us to a relay hospital where they looked at the dressing again and sent [me] to what is called an evacuation hospital where they operate on you.  First they take an X Ray of the wound and then you are sent to the operating room.  All they had to do with me was clean the wound and tie up the artery.  Most of the fellows have to take ether.  We stayed at this place for 24 hours when we were put on a hospital train and brought us to this place.

 

            We certainly had some tough ground to go over when we made our attack.  First we had to cross a lot of marshy ground and had to wade through water from six inches to four feet deep.  Then we had to go through a woods and the vines and underbrush were so thick we could hardly get through.  We did not meet with much resistance in the woods except a few machine guns.  It was just as we got through the woods that I got hit.  It was very foggy and we could not see very far and we run onto this machine gun post before we knew it.  I think [there] was about three more fellows hit besides myself.  I will be alright again in a couple of weeks.  We certainly got good treatment at the hospital.  Knute Winge’s brother is just a few beds from where I am.  He was not wounded but got a piece of steel in his eye.  He is the youngest brother who I had never met but we had got to talking and he asked me if I knew Knute.  He knows the Ericksons also as he lived in Logan Square.  I will try and write more next time.  

 

                                                                        Love to all

                                                                                    Theo

 

Pvt. T.F. Thourson 1390312

Co. A 132^nd Inf

American E.F. 

Note:  This incident occurred on September 26, 1918, the first day of the Meuse Argonne Offensive, the final offensive of the war.  The Thirty Third Division was on the right flank of the American Army with the Meuse River on their right.  Theo was shot near the town of Forges, north of Verdun. His wound was serious enough to get him out of combat but was not life threatening.   

In this letter Theo describes the action up to the point where he is wounded.  The Germans were taken by surprise by this maneuver.  When captured, a German officer said "We were looking for you in front.  We did not expect you would come through the swamp and out flank us.  We did not think that any Yankee outfit was so foxy." (From a Chicago Daily news account of the battle.)

Subsequent fighting was heavy and as many as 25,000 Americans died between Sep 26 and November 11, the date of the Armistice.  So Theo escaped the worst of it.

TLT

Letter #20

France Sept 10-1918

 

Dear Mother,

 

It is just one year ago today since I left Chicago and saw you last.  When I left I never thought for a moment that I would travel as much and as far we have.  It has been rather hard for me write the last few days as we have been travelling nights and sleeping days.  I received Mabel’s letter #27 then left the town we were billeted last.  Some of our mail has gone astray because we had not received any for some time and if I remember right the last letter was #22.

 

The night we left our billets we traveled in auto trucks and the next day we slept in some barracks in a large woods.  The next day we slept in a large dugout that held 200 men.  We are now in the trenches and we have fine dugouts to sleep in.  They have two entrances so we get a lot of fresh air. It is very quiet where we are now.  There is not near as much shooting as there was at some of the place[s] we have been.  (Note: This reference is probably to the trenches near Verdun in the American sector.)

 

Mabel says that you have had some real hot weather in Chicago.  The weather has been pretty cool here until today.  It has been cloudy all day and it rains every couple of hours or so.

 

I do not know how the war has been going for the four or five days as I have not seen a paper of any kind.  I do not know how long we are going to stay in the trenches this time nor do I know when I will be able to send this letter but I thought I might as well write it so that if they should come around as ask if anyone has any mail, I would have it ready.

 

I am glad to hear that you are all feeling fine and I am also happy to say that I am feeling good too.  Well this is the news I have to write about at present so I will close with

                                   

                                                            Love to all

                                                                        Theo

Pvt T.F. Thourson 1390312

Co. A. 132^nd Inf

American E.F.

Note:  The movements described here are a prelude to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive which began on Sep 26 1918.  The 33rd Division will be on the right flank of the American Army, adjacent to the Meuse River.  TLT

Letter # 19

France Sept 1-1918

 

Dear Anna,

 

            Letters are very slow in arriving at this place [Culey, near Bar le Duc] as we have not had much mail since we arrived here.  I received a letter from a fellow in Detroit.  That was a little overdue.

 

            The town crier was around just now telling the people the latest news.  He has a drum to call their attention.  Otherwise the town is very quiet.  This morning I went down to the creek and washed my clothes and I think I did a pretty good job of it.  I stopped writing just now to go out and get my wash as it has started to rain a little bit.

 

            A nephew of the people at this house is here today on a visit.  He has lost one arm and one leg.  He got caught out in no mans land somehow and pretended he was dead but the Germans evidently try [tried] to make sure of it, because they cut him up so bad he lost his limbs.  He gets around pretty good as he has an artificial arm and leg.

 

            Today was the first time we had white bread since we arrived in France and it certainly did taste like cake compared to the rye bread we have been getting right along.  We also had fresh tomatoes something I have not had since we were a[t] Camp Logan.  We are all getting fat again as we are not working so hard right now.  I thought we had some big hills where we were before but the hills around here are like mountains compared to them.  There is one drawback to these small places as we cannot get any books or magazines to read.

 

            I wrote a letter to Enoch yesterday but I do not know if he will get it as I did not know what company he is in.  I suppose he [is] somewhere in France by this time. 

 

            It is pretty hard to write as they are playing a phonograph in the house and they have a laughing song on it.  There is a piano in the town also, but I think it is about as old as the church that was built in 1220.

 

            I have managed to get hold of the NY Herald for the last couple of days so I know a little of what is going on in the world.

 

            Well it is time to go to supper and news is pretty scarce so I will close with

 

                                                            Love to all

                                                                        Theo

 

Pvt TF Thourson 1390312

Co A 132^nd Inf

American EF

           

(Received 10/9/18)

 

Note:  The 33rd Division was transferred from the British front to the new American front near Verdun.  Here they joined General Pershing's 1st Army.  This letter was probably written from the small town of Culey near Bar le Duc.  TLT