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Please excuse this note book paper but I am out of note paper and expect
a box from England tonight.
Last
night I received my first mail from the battalion, eighteen letters among
which was Helen' s 74th of Sept.29th.
How do you like the war now? The armistice is all signed but not as yet
carried out and matters in Germany are at such sixes and sevens that I would
not be surprised to see certain troubles before the terms are completed. At
any rate I think that we can take it that any real warfare is a thing of the
past. I am all for taking every precaution however. I believe that if you look
back to about the time the Bosche were driving in March and April you will
find that I told you to keep your eye on the latter part of the year. I always
felt that there was going to be a big counter and that we were not kept out
and fed and trained for two months for nothing. I did not look for such a
complete and speedy break up however. I looked for the armistice about next
July. Now I hope that we shall be home by then.
London went quite mad and they have had big times here. I have felt
little excitement and think that they had better keep on soldiering for a few
weeks.
I do hope that your indigestion is gone. Helen said that you had again
been troubled with it. There has been a great deal of sickness here and in
England.
I was sorry to hear of the accident to Gowan' s dog. If it was a train I
should think that it must have been a pretty close call of having no dog at
all.
The coming Xmas should be a happy one throughout the world generally
speaking. The last one with the forces away and the scrap wound up. A few
however have lost relatives in the last scrap or two. Last night I got word of
the Battalion. It went through a show a few days after I left and one of my
favorite young officers a chap named Newitt who came out with the 131st as a
private, was killed. He was with me in quite a few nasty spots and he was
really a wonder, didn' t know what fear was. He got through the show and went
over to clean some snipers out of a house. He finished this task and when
leaving the house a bosche machine gun from up the street in an old hospital
building got him through the head. I have been so lucky with my old officers
that I begrudge both Douglas and Gnat very much. The colonel wrote me and said
that the hun had paid. Our battalion took about 500 prisoners and 800 bosche
were buried on our brigade front, which means a two battalion front.
These figures are pretty large when one considers our present strength.
When I left I had two platoons of three sections each instead of four
platoons of four sections each. Each company is now organized on a one platoon
basis so you see we haven' t had a cinch the last three months.
At present our weather is very fine but of course cold. This hospital is
kept like a refrigerator and everyone has colds. I am hoping to be discharged
soon.
I had a letter from Mildred DeBeck in which she told me of Elsie' s
visit. Also a very nice letter from Mrs. Lambert who has not yet returned to
Folkestone.
Everything is Ok with me. My neck is much better but will likely be
scarred at the back where they cut it open. I get out every day and have a
