Letters From the Front

Dated:

Letters have been received from Clifford Johnson and Willard McCollum, both written after the battle all of Langemarck. Johnson merely states that he was the only survivor of his section of the 13th and it was an awful fight. McCollum writes more fully, reporting Pat Moran, Ed. Hanson and Charlie Dougherty safe and well, while it was his opinion that Duncan Johnston was either dead or a prisoner. He says:

I still wonder how any of us escaped for we were completely surrounded and fought for two days and nights before breaking through, during which time we were heavily shelled, losing hundreds of men. Our regiment was 72 hours without food or water, so you may know that we fought desperately, and when we charged we drove the Germans before us on the run. We took no prisoners, every German we could get died on the spot, for only a few hours prior they captured one of our dressing stations and bayoneted all of our wounded. We would never have had to retire had not our artillery been put out of action. The German infantry is no good, bu they have fine artillery, and know how to use it, but even at that it took them a day to drive us back 1 mile, and when reinforcements came up we turned the tables on them and gained it back, only to have them bring up more guns and men and again force to retire, losing many men. A second time we were relieved by English troops and this time were sent back to sleep. The buildings having been reduced to ashes by shells we sleep in the open fields, which wouldn't have been so bad had it not rained all night. It was miserable, for we had lost our overcoats and blankets. The following day we went back into the fight, and had no rest for a week. We are now back to billets and others have filled our places in the trenches.