World War I Collection

Knights of Columbus OVERSEAS SERVICE

Two American Flags crossed above the Knights of Columbus Logo

ON ACTIVE SERVICE WITH AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES

A.P.O. 710 Kurtscheid DATE May 24, 1919

Dear mother:

I received your letter a while back and will answer it this evening. I wrote to Ida & Ruby right recently. We have been having real summer weather here in Kurtscheid the last few weeks. It reminds me of the weather over at the ranch. I would rather have this warm weather though than rain and snow which we had for a long time. What drilling we do [deleted]for[deleted] is in O.D. shirts so it isn't so bad. Shot on the range last Monday for record and made Marksman again which I thought was doing pretty good considering the range we shot on. There was Beacoup that never qualified and I hear they have to go down again and shoot over. Thank goodness

Army of Occuaption logo

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS Army of Occupation

Date May 30, 1919. A.P.O. 710 Kurtscheid

Dear mother:

Rec'd your letter written on the 30th of April several days ago & will answer it this p.m. as it is a holiday. We went down to Niederbreitbach this morning to the memorial services and honored all the soldiers that fell in battle. The worst part of it was coming back up the hill to this burg. It was sure warm & the roads were dusty and was wringing wet with swet [sweat] when I got back. Last night at about 11 o'clock call to arms was sounded & we all piled out with our rifles, belts, & bayonets also are helmets and gas masks. They got the Burgomaster out also and made him go around & tell all the Germans that if any of them tried to leave town they would be shot. It sure put a scare

comfortable in blouses so we fall out in O.D. Shirts most of the time. Tuesday June 10 we had orders to roll up our heavy marching orders & believe me they were heavy and we shoved off the whole Battallion and hiked about fifteen kilometers from here up pretty near the neutral zone. We had our chow and rested up a couple of hours and returned to Kurtscheid a mighty tired bunch. It had some of us a guessing. We didn't know whether we would come back or not. The Heinies all tho't we were leaving for good too I guess. Guess they were disappointed when they seen us coming back. Friday we had another maneuver with live ammunition and artillery. Will send you some pictures of the maneuver if I can get them. The boy that was with me at Aix Les Bains in the picture is only about 19 years old. Ask Barton Draper if he remembers Thomas who attended Davis Farm School.

He is our Company barber and said he knew Barton & Perry Phoenix well. Tell him I may see him before many more years if I dont die of old age before