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ERNEST BALE WRITES
Miss Hazel Stanton receives interesting letter from Ernest Bale
who has probably seen as much action as any that are over there.
Reisdorf, Luxemburg,
Nov. 28, 1918
Friend Hazel; I believe I have received a letter or two from you
that I haven't answered, for it has been a month since I have
been able to write. Now that the censorship lid is lifted, we
have so much to write about that we hardly know what to write. As
for me I think I will wait until I get home to tell about my
experiences.
I have been having a great trip lately. As you know we are
following the Germans towards the Rhine. I happen to be with the
leading unit that was following. We started at Pouilly on the
Meuse and now we are about a mile from the Dutch border. We have
been stationed here for four or five days but expect to move on
at any time. You will have to practice up walking if you want to
keep up with me. We have come about 75 or 100 miles now and I
guess we have that much more. I hope when we finish the hike that
they send us back to the States. We expect to be the first back
just the same as a lot of other divisions. I happen to be in the
2nd and the chances look good to me, but I may be mistaken.
Since June 1st we have been some busy. We spent 38 miserable
days around Chateau Thierry and Belleau Woods. You have probably
read considerable about them by this time. Every night that we
were up there we put up barb wire entanglement or dug trenches
and there were plenty of shells to make us hurry.
After we left there we went to Soissons, St. Mihiel,
Champaigne and Argonne where we took part in the last battle of
the war. The night before the armistice is one that I will never
forget, and the many more that were there. We built a raft bridge
three or four days before and the night of the 10th came the
order to cross the Meuse. About eight o'clock that night under
cover of a dense fog and barrage we started to put
the bridge across. We got along nicely until the bridge was about
fifteen feet from the other bank and the lashing were cut by
machine gun fire. We might have left it go at that but we
couldn't spoil the good reputation of our regiment so we managed
to get it back along our bank and lash it together again. We
swung it across again and anchored it to the other side. That two
or three hours that we worked on the bridge were sure some
exciting for they sure poured the machine gun bullets at us. A
fellow often wonders
how they can come so close to him and yet never be touched.
There were sure some happy men the next morning at 11 o'clock
when the white flags went up. I have been through six or seven
months of active work and I hope I never see any more of it.
I haven't seen any of the boys yet and if we keep moving as
rapidly as we have lately I guess there is no chance of seeing
them. I haven't seen Irven since a few days before we put the
bridges across. His company put one across too, but they had
better luck than we, so I suppose he is O.K. They keep spreading
rumors around here that we are going to parade in Washington on
Xmas. I hope they are right and I won't have to write very many
more letters from here.
I guess I can answer any questions now concerning most
anything that I have seen over here.
Yours as ever,
CPL. ERNEST L. BALE
Co. B., 2nd Engrs.
Am. E.F., France
~ source: Ruthven Free Press, Ruthven, Palo
Alto, Iowa, Wednesday, Jan 8, 1919
~ transcribed by a volunteer for Iowa Old Press http://iowaoldpress.com
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