did not have cnance to fire a shot france nov 24 1918 mr george brooks st george utah dear dad today is the day set apart by the war department tor soldiers in to write dad s christmas letter als night and I 1 ve been on duty today and haven t had time to write before so am writing now on june we left camp lewis tor camp mills long island in some previous letter I 1 ve spoken ot my transcontinental trip so will omit that part now after being fitted out with overseas equipment we set sail on sunday july 14 our convoy consisted ot 13 large transports each carrying about men for about 48 hours out from america wo were accompanied with several submarine chasers together with various aircraft alter several days from land these returned to america and ne took a rather zigzag course to liverpool england all went well save that quite a number of us were very sea sick tor the first few days out we sailed tor 12 days and on the 0 july were met by another small convoy ot torpedo destroyers or submarine chasers als needless to even attempt to express the loy at setting toot on real soil even tho it was foreign alter we were chased down the gang plank and lined up we marched through the city to the railroad station we were not in liverpool long but soon pulled out tor southampton which Is in the extreme southern end ot great britain our rail course led through the notorious city of derby where ate stopped and had a cup ot coffee which was furnished by the red cross women we arrived at southampton at midnight unloaded and marched about three miles to a rest camp where we stayed until 7 that evening in the evening we left portsmouth harbor arriving at harve france early in the morning to tell you just how I 1 landed in france posing as an american soldier would take too much time hoft ever say I 1 a certain sensation of responsibility and perhaps a little tear well dad we stayed here about 36 hours and had a fairly good rest at that time this section of the country was being shelled but as luck would have it we never saw or heard any in the evening of the second day we left there on the small french train tor the central part of france in the vicinity ot cleremont ferrand just 30 days from the day we left camp lewis for about three months our battery was billeted in the little town of couanon cournon Cour non about 10 kilometers from cleremont we stopped here for the purpose of receiving our trucks tractors motorcycles large 6 inch gung and other material to take up on the front to destroy huns with not only did we get supplied with equipment but most of us were sent to cleremont tor the purpose of studying motors such as we were to use still others were sent to camouflage schools and gas schools after receiving our heavy equipment we prepared to leave tor the front I 1 wish you could see the large guns we have together with the other machinery the guns are french made and weigh about 13 tons but you bet we got the little holt which takes it any place on sunday the ath our battalion together with its fighting iron and other material left cleremont for the verdon becton of the western front from the railroad we pulled our kilometer into what ia known as drocourt Dro court nook about ab kilometers from verdun and about the same distance from the great battle ground argonne woods we are still here but on the eleventh we had everything ready to dash tor the and take up a battery position somewhere in this sector probably towards verdun or metz I 1 don t know whether this was good luck good management or whether the presence of F A scared hell out of the germans or not but any way we did not go into real action in short I 1 will say that within 48 hours battery C would probably have been throwing m m shells at the bosche enemy however we did not move onto the but stayed here tor further orders 1 well folks at home perhaps you can thank your lucky stars things went the may did As I 1 said we are still here in tho french forest of brocourt Bro court which is of beech nut trees largely well pa did you ever hear of a soldier going up on a front line for a pleasure trip well this was the case for the regiment visited tho argonne woods and saw the crown princes dugout to view the ruin which has been wrought by the demon of war causes one to almost weep last sunday quite a number of us boys visited tho city ot verdun although it la the third strongest bortl fled city in europe it has not been able to withstand the terrific german bombardment I 1 will not reiterate modern french as no doubt you are already familiar with tha paper reports of how this city has been under constant ure tor four years almost all the walls of the city were tumbled down with but few it any ot abe art s i y i T well sunday and the latest report Is that we are to leave hero tuesday I 1 don t know where we 11 so from here but some think america ehtle others eay german where we will watch on the rhine As tor me id like to see germany as this will probably be my last trip to europe and I 1 want to see all I 1 can moroni C george leany and I 1 sleep in the same shack this Is a sketch ot it I 1 always was fond ot drawing pretty pictures well pa als bed time so stop and crawl in now moroni has the bed warm tell bess G to hurry and arate I 1 got a good letter from ed also one tom tom la in belgium and has probably seen real fighting wishing you a therry and happy new year I 1 am with love and somewhere in europe sam brt C F A K ica