The following is a letter received by Mr. John Mobley of
Everett, N.C., from his brother Jim Mobley in France.
Somewhere in France
October 3rd,
1918
My Dear Brother:
I received your letter yesterday and I sure was glad to know
you were all right. This leaves me well and getting along fine. I haven’t
written you all in about three weeks but it was because I was busy and it wasn’t
convenient.
But we are all back of the lines now at rest and I hope we
will be out for a while. John, I just wish some pretty moonlight night you
could look several thousand miles to the East and see what is taking place over
here. It is awful to see the ruined homes. They now look like just piles of
brick and many of them can never be rebuilt. There is some beautiful farming
land here but these people don’t know how to farm, they don’t raise anything
but wheat and Irish potatoes, they have plenty of cattle though and the
funniest thing I ever saw was two dogs churning milk. They were fixed in a big
wheel and as the dog ran up the wheel, that caused it to turn and churn the
milk. They earned all they ate, all right.
Well, I have been in real action since I have been here and
we have had plenty of fire works and real ones too but I know I am the luckiest
boy ever lived, not had a scratch.
How are the girls? I haven’t seen one in over a month but we
will soon be back where they are. We are doing fine work here, have slept
beyond the Hindenburg line all right but still we haven’t done anything until
we sleep in Berlin. They call us Yanks here and Yanks we are going to be until
we show the Kaiser what we can do.
I hope I will soon hear from home again. Write as often as you
can.
Lovingly,
Your Brother Jim
-=-
Letter from Lt. LeRoy Anderson in France
This is an extract from a letter from 2nd Lt.
LeRoy Anderson received by a friend in town. Lt. Anderson has been in the thick
of the fight now for some time and he certainly has the right spirit.
Somewhere in France
Oct. 7th, 1918
My Dear ----:
Your letter of August 28th was received, very
glad to hear from you. Think that our mail is coming through fine now. It is true
that I haven’t written as often as I would have liked but over here things
personal are always of last consideration. When I do have a few minutes, they
are usually spent in censoring my men’s mail, which I hate to hold up.
I wrote you about coming to the front line. Well I have been
here ever since the exception of four days. Am beginning to feel like an old
veteran at the game and have gotten used to the shells bursting near me but
when a fellow hears a big one coming his way he immediately and involuntarily
hugs old Mother Earth and prays to the good Lord that it doesn’t decide to
stop. I’ve been over the top quite a number of times and have had a few
interesting experiences.
The Huns attacked one of our strong points using liquid
fire. One of our men was burned in the face and one arm and when he fell the
square head sprayed him on the back. He was suffering agony but when they put
him in the ambulance he was smiling and said, “Boys give’m hell. I will be back
to help you in a few days.”
Another with a big piece of shrapnel in his face, on asking
if he wanted to go to the hospital, replied, “No, Sir! I am going back to my
company where I belong.”
What chance has the Kaiser and his beasts got against such
spirit?
Recent news is encouraging and I’m of the opinion that we
can now see the beginning of the end. Of course all of us over here are very
anxious to see the finish but NOT until Germany has been made to see the folly
of trying to conquer the world, and the war carried home to the German people
and they be made to see the Kaiser and his puppets as they are. Until this is
done we have not accomplished our mission and it will be only a matter of time
before we will have to do all this over again.
“When a task is once begun, never leave it till it’s done.”
I was indeed sorry to hear of John Hassell’s death but I
know that John died like a true American.
Trusting that we may continue to meet with success and will
soon be able to return to home and loved ones after accomplishing all duties.
I am sincerely,
Roy
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