Sgt. David Hunt Write Home From France

From the Brevard News, Feb. 21, 1919

In a Letter to His Father, Sergeant David L. Hunt Gives an Outline of His Trip to France

On May 5^th, 1917, the 115^th 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 25^th, 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 30^th 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 30^th (N.C., S.C., and Tenn.), 27^th (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 30^th and 27^th 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 30^th division was trained at Camp Sevier and the 27^th 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 2^nd 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 40^th 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.