Show what the end of it meant to the doy boys jo 19 A aih ld Ae description of what arkils lice duy meant to the vien men at the front la 13 riven given in a letter written by vandergrift in france Fi lince to a friend at although it 11 was penned three days after tile the actual signing of the armistice it carries with it as one a picture of the after ninth math of war as aa might be found in a search of all tho the flies bolcs of the war department tile the letter Is as follows at the front nov 14 18 dear boss it seems so strange to write in ob ab security free from deager ot of air bombs shells or deadly gas and the new sensations are its as hard to get accustomed to and even more s GO 0 than those of the opposite sense no more gas caa sentries to awaken sleeping soldiers no more light guards to see that tile position Is not disclosed at night j no more ducking instinctively for there are no whiz bangs making huge holes in the air and noises like express trains pence peace it Is and as nuth buch nut h it Is realized more here than elsewhere morning of tho the great day eleven 0 clock on tile the eleventh came just in time and until tiring had find actually ceased it was a doubtful question that it would ever stop firla firing 9 lad had been quite intense for three days and nights and the battery had moved into as aa ninny new positions in that time they were anything but comfortable for table ones just before dawn ou on that eventful day the orders were to ho move move forward up with the infantry dawn found us up there but as it happened there wap a heavy fog so heavy that it was difficult to select a good place for the guns and impossible for or the hun to spy us the gurs gura were placed and the lumbers I 1 moved to the roads when the boche opened up on oil the road with machine guns then occurred a lively tile the I 1 kind you run read about scene shouted orders galloping horses riders bent low on the necks and empty caissons chaissons cais sons hurling along the atie road to safety at the guris guas the bustle of getting blayd men hastily digging shallow shelter trenches trench ts for themselves and their ava anu on the detail beating it across the terrain running the telephone wires A pretty snappy sight especially since there were many shells chell falling imports it was merely the oven luea searching fire for the battery could not be seen artillery kept duay busy dy by this time we were in action and firing ut dangerously fast rate at least dangerous to the enemy who though we could not see him we knew where he wom we a by the map all one needs to lo know these days A few more minutes and every piece of artillery allied aud and enemy on the entire front was lu in action from the sound of things and the earth fairly rocked all was going well with the battery when it wits caught in a deadly barrage a cuntala of ire fire then tile the missiles mined A bit of mustard gas orders to withdraw the nien men safely in frie ridly shell holes this athla was the sequence ee during the next hour and to t the lie shell holes boles we stuck for it was suicides det to even crawl over ever the ground the particular shell bole I 1 was to was its as big as an office building I 1 wished at that time that it were as deep ns as tho the ocean lad it been struck the only necessary ceremony would have been to have stuck i six little dittli wooden crosses crossas in the ground where we were there were four conseco five duds dods that lift hit within a few feet of the hole bole any one oae of which would have ilone done the work find they exploded pl oded each obe one in its turn brought forth at fervent good old dud an anil when ryben three more duds tift afterward erward struck just as close I 1 felt sure thai we wela spared spar for further work hugging the ground this awful 1 continued tot foi two anre hours mid anil for thol lull length of 0 time wo venture fur far from safety the hole wits was even comfortable with a good supply of cigars which I 1 thoughtfully or by chance counce hat with me except for an occasional sniff of igns ens just before communication with the benr hail had broken orf off I 1 had been informed that fill all tiring firing would cense nt at 11 at IU 10 minutes of 11 business picked up considerably and at two of ull all tell hell broke loosa it was then I 1 had find my doubts find na ai I 1 followed the second hand of my witte watch it through those two centuries of billi utes I 1 suspected that foch feel had forgotten to notify the kaiser but nt lit il 11 and the signatory powers must have synchronized their watches all tiring firing ceased and the silence was painful it was wag a dramatic almost tragic end to a horrible bombardment and incidentally to tile the war for the war Is only an incident Inel dent when one I 1 la being shelled out of a position ive often admired the elk toothed charm charin of tin an ae elk ik 1 and have seen tile the clocks fuce thereon I 1 do not know the time it tells whether it la Is 0 5 or 12 or 11 but if its set at 11 1 I want to bo be a brother elk and wear a clock for that holy hour saved ray my buttery tery from destruction thoughts of home tile the burning questions with us now are will wo we return to the states immediately mediately will we ve go into germany ler many as aa troops of occupation or remain to in franco france to police up tie the duds and fill all in the shell holes my striker says lie sikny saw enough of france the tha first week lie ho now thinks that this country be io so bad it if it that there are so many fore foreigners ignerA here ive seen a bit of french lor balne it la Is a wonderful corf more so than the low lands of the southern france but southern franco france like roost most southern countries raises and supports beautiful women so much in its favor and we dont care much for scenic beauty no how flow then there are the wines of the southern districts but why talk of love have moved twice since starting this letter the first time back into a dense woods into a dugout safe and comfortable I 1 am now back at the battery es chelon where the combat train and horses are located it if la Is on tile tho horses that we will now rp concentrate fur for it Is on them that much depends if we are to move my big sorrel was killed last week in a pinch bo be was waa attached to a caisson to haul ammunition to the guns A big one hit the road nearby killing a few bev horses harsen and wounding several men the driver riding this particular horse horae had ills hla leg punctured by tile the shell frag merit ment which killed the horse ve have biad se severne narrow burrow escapes like khlil nine or ten years are arc not bluch in the lire life of a nation but they take quite it 11 MS slice out of tile the life of a man the buys who alio have been beell cooped it up lit in their little hospi till ward so many or of chelli unable to leave their beds in ili nil all these lang long years know the of time uy by tile observance of armistice day tho though tigh they know that it nation nuver never forgets that men who were willil willing ig to sacrifice their lives and careers are honor honored ed by their more fortunate brothers who cattle came out 0 of the war unscathed find and untouched aej by those who perforce were tile the stay fit at homes hollies the observance at the tomb of tile the unknown soldier with a presidential messa message e was waa heralded throughout the notion nation as n s a 0 token of pence peace from froin tile the hills of arlington to the far flung duny corners of the tie country when nil beadi were bowed in one minutes silence on the cle eleventh hour on oil the eleventh day of november reverberated reverence for tile the national security echoed and re echoed over the land and while there will always be preparedness for war and the security that comes with preparedness the men who hold the destinies of th in their hands pledged themselves that america will have no war of its own se el ing day of memories if there ta Is war it will be thrust upon tier her and then bowing to the inevitable america will go forth again to the grim business this la Is the pledged attitude altitude of the nation and the faith of the people in the ten years past america tins has seen its in du austile dus stile reach a peak never known before in its ts odd years of existence its people are hailed as aa the wealthiest on the globe its workmen are housed better than those of any other country prosperity haq hai brought with it ill all tile the comforts of life and yet in all tills this luxury of material comfort armistice day each year never loses its spiritual touch in tile the allence of little homes find and great mansions there will te be read letters similar to the written by captain vandergrift little mothers their heads bowed their hearts oiled with tender memories will read words their sons had written in flanders fields sons some borne of them resting now beneath tile the poppies pop ples so armistice day carries its message ono one that will never be forgotten so long as the cation endures washington post |