In a Letter to His
Father, Sergeant David L. Hunt Gives an Outline of His Trip to France
On May 5th, 1917, the 115th Machine
Gun Battalion under command of Maj. William R. Robertson, started on its trip
to help “Get the Kaiser.” This battalion, composed of four companies, A, B, C,
and D, was divided into two parts and sent to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, by two
separate routes. I belonged to Co. A, which was on the same train as Co. B. Our
route was via Charlotte, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Camp Merritt.
On May 11, 1917, we sailed from Philadelphia and after a
trip of about four days reached the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, stayed
there one day and joined a fleet of 11 other transports before we started
across sea which was a trip of 10 days.
Our English ship was partly loaded with chickens, apples,
and candies. But our food for the 16 days’ trip was tea, half-cooked goat meat
(not mutton), army hard bread (hard tacks), pickles and a few tea cakes
occasionally. We paid 10, 25 and 50 cents apiece for the apples and about the
same for the chocolates, etc. Why did we pay the price? Because we had to live.
The government allots 41 cents per day for food to each soldier but—well that’s
simply another one of “those things” that we cannot understand.
When the convoy reached the war zone a distance of about 500
miles from Europe, we were joined by six American submarine destroyers which
escorted us until we landed. It was about 1 a.m. May 25th, 1917, as
we were drawing near the middle of the Irish Sea, when our fleet was attacked
by two submarines, but in the same manner that the United States ended the war,
her chasers that were guarding us, ended the two submarines, that is very
promptly.
We landed in Liverpool and our next move was by rail to
Dover. This was a main line English railroad and made exceptionally good speed.
It made at least 30 miles an hour, which is “running some” for a train in
Europe. There are four wheels under each car. Each car has four sections and
each section has two seats. Each seat accommodates three human beings or five
soldiers with all their equipment. If you go form one section to another, you
must get out on the ground first. The trainman gets on the roof and puts his
hand thru a trap door to light the gas lamps.
When the English soldiers are aboard these trains, they stop
at every good sized village in order that hot tea can be issued to the
“Fighting Tommies.”
From Dover we crossed the English Channel and landed in
Calais, France. Marched from the dock to a so-called “Rest Camp” but the name
“rest” is entirely misleading, because there is nothing restful about any rest
camp.
Judging by the way that the French people stared at us they
probably had never seen any American soldiers. After “Promenading” around the
“Burg” a while we returned to the rest camp, which was named “Camp Sands” by a
member of the company, appropriately named too as the sand was ankle deep. When
our supper was over, which was the same as breakfast and dinner, corned beef
and hard bread, “Bully beef and hard tack,” we played cards awhile and had our
evening smokes. And had talks concerning the large guns which we could hear
booming in the distance, the first of course that we had ever heard.
It was about 12 o’clock when “Gerry” (the popular name that
applies to any German in general) woke us with bombs which were raining down
any and everywhere, and the roar of the anti-aircraft guns all around Calis
[Calais?], one would naturally think that there would be no town or camp left
by morning.
A few days later we were detrained near St. Omer. The
Corporals and Sergeants were sent to a special machine gun school, to take as
long a course as possible before that the time that the 30th
Division, “Old Hickory” was scheduled to go to the front. I was sent to Camiers,
France, where the “General Headquarters Base Machine Gun School” was located. I
had a course of 30 days at this school before we went to the front.
In a machine gun company a corporal is in charge of a squad
of seven men and one gun. A sergeant is in charge of a section, which is
composed of two squads. The gunner of each squad must be entirely reliable and
efficient. The best gunner in our company was Monroe Wilson of Transylvania
County.
From the later part of September until about the middle of
October the 30th (N.C., S.C., and Tenn.), 27th (New York)
Divisions were driving the Germans out of St. Quentin and Cambrai and were the
first American troops to penetrate the Hindenburg Line, which was through those
two towns. Both the divisions were all shot up. I was in charge of two machine
guns and 14 privates. The boys got all shot up, legs and arms, and some were
gassed. Monroe Wilson of Brevard was slightly wounded in the head by shrapnel.
He was one of my gunners, and a very good gunner. The 30th and 27th
divisions won the war on the Western Front, when they broke the Hindenburg Line
it finished Kaiser Bill. Those two divisions were the first American troops in
Belgium too. We wear a gold star for that. I have several decorations and
stripes.
The 30th division was trained at Camp Sevier and
the 27th at Camp Wadsworth, at present they are near St. Nazaiae,
waiting to be sent back to a real country U.S.A.
I have already told you in one of (my) other letters, that
after serving a long time at the front I was recommended for the job and was
sent to the 2nd Corps Replacement Battalion as a machine gun
instructor for the training of the new replacements just sent over from U.S.
These men were also given instruction in gas before we assigned them to various
divisions where they were needed.
After the armistice was signed I was sent to the 40th
division (The Sunshine Division) which was from Cal. We are now at Bardeaux
(Bordeaux?) with orders to take the first available transportation to the U.S.
On account of their initiative, alertness, and swiftness,
the Americans are the best soldiers in France. The Australians, Canadians, and
Scotch soldiers lack those three qualities to the degree of the Americans and
for that reason cannot be placed on the same footing as the soldiers from the
U.S. Next are the French soldiers. They are splendid soldiers but are too slow
and are not aggressive enough. Very good on a defense and can hold the line,
but don’t have much success when they go over after “Gerry.” Judging by what I
have heard, the Italians rank next to the French. Next are the Belgians. And at
the bottom of the list we find the “Fighting English.” The English did well on
aircrafts, and did much in transporting American troops.
I have been trying to find out why they call this “Sunny
France.” If they would call it Muddy France or Rainy France, there would be no
puzzle to the phrase.
During the eight months that I have been over here we have
had some good weather. I will venture to say that we have had at least 23 to 27
clear sunshining days, during the eight months. And no two or three days
consecutive.
The western Belgium around Ypres and through Flanders is
lower than sea level. When we were entrenched near Ypres (which is nothing but
a pile of rocks and bricks) we could dig only a few feet on account of water
rising and in most places it would rise anyway. At one time the Belgians opened
certain flood gates and drove the Germans out.
The people of western Belgium are almost uncivilized. They
would run and hide, etc., and would take the handles off the pumps in order
that we could not get water to drink. They live in huts of two rooms, they live
in one room and the horse and pigs, etc., live in the other room. The chickens
patrol the dining table. We caught a Belgian artillery battery with their guns
reversed and shelling the Belgian towns that were within range. Of course they
were turned over to the firing squad. I could name many similar instances.
The people of Northern France are civilized but very slouchy
looking. The towns and houses of northern France are very unsanitary. And the
height of these people’s ambitions is to cheat soldiers out of as much money as
possible. In southern France there is rather a good class of people,
comparatively speaking. Their towns and homes are clean, and they have barns
for their horses, cows, etc. They are very kind, generous and courteous with
the American soldiers. With the exception of the sanitation the towns of France
are alike. Cobblestones for pavements and the only place where they have
side-walks that are wide enough to walk on is Paris.
Some of the towns have a street car system, but none of them
are any good. Nearly all of the buildings are of stone and brick and no
buildings over three or four stories high. Even in the wonderful, famous city
of Paris in Sunny France. Paris covers a large area of ground. A few of the
streets are wide and are paved with asphalt and in comparison with the streets
of the other towns, they seem quite pretty. They have a fairly large street car
system, but very old-timey and slow. You can catch a car every now and then.
They don’t have schedules in France. There is a pretty good sub-way system in
Paris although the cars are much smaller and lighter and slower than those of
the United States.
The people of southern France (not northern France) are very
courteous and polite, always say good morning, good day, sir—never leave off
the “sir.” It is very difficult for a Frenchman to speak English, yet the
Americans learn French quite easily. There are no two towns of France where
they use the same brogue. Americans don’t worry about the language, though. All
they want is to get back to a real country once more and they will know how to
appreciate a good home and country.
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