Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-01-27 | Page 16 | Says Biggest Battle of War due Soon

SAYS BIGGEST BATTLE or iNi Salt Laker Tells of Mighty Preparations on Western West-ern Front. WHITE BREAD LUXURY German Prisoners Prefer Conditions to Fighting for Country. A graphic story of his work on the French front is told by P. D. Allison in a letter just received in Salt Lake City. He says: We have carried a great many wounded today, and it is very tiresome tire-some work, lifting them around on stretchers and driving the car. The cars are French Panhards and very hard to handle. They are also hard to start these cold mornings. Wc are in a very interesting sec-, tor and see a great many things, such as air battles between the French and German aviators. The guns are going it all day and night. Sometimes they let up for a time, only to begin again with renewed intensity. We drive through destroyed French villages, in fact, we are living in a partially destroyed village. . There is a little, old, dirty cafe here, where w loiter around "in the evening. There we meet all kinds of soldiers. British, French, Africans, Afri-cans, Canadians. Belgians and the like. They all tell wonderful stories, and it is very interesting to sit around in the dim light and keep i our eyes and ears open, but your mouth shut. I began to collect a few souvenirs, souve-nirs, such as German helmets, etc., but they got so heavy I could not carry them around with me, so I hid them away in an old shell hole in hopes that when I start back I might be able to find them. I have seen thousands of German prisoners. They are a sullen, downtrodden-looking lot. They are very well taken care of, and seem to prefer being a prisoner than fighting fight-ing for their country, although I cannot blame them very much. But when they are so well taken caro of you think of the treatment that the allied prisoners are getting, it makes you want to take it out on the Boehe prisoners. But it, will be better for us in the end when they begin exchanging prisoners.' I see by the papers that the British have already exchanged some prisoners. pris-oners. French Are Brave. I had a loaf of good white bread the other day, the first I had. seen in France. I was passing through a village and a. French officer asked in o to take a package to his wife, who liv.;l iu the villasre in which we are stationed. He offered me two frnr.es or 38 cents, but I refused. So he took mo into his office and gave me a fresh loaf of white bread. There is going to be a big battle on this western front soon." Mnnv say it will be the biggest battle of the v.ar. It certainly will be terrible, ter-rible, if it gets any worse. God help the Germans when the allies get started this spring. It is bitter cold here now, and there is a great deal of snow. We put on all the clothes we possibly can pile on us when we start out in our cars. The bovs in the trenches are in mud and water above their knees. The French are very brave. When we carry them and unavoidably unavoid-ably hurt them they simply say: "O'h, ha, ha." I bet the Americans Ameri-cans say worse than that undrjr similar sim-ilar circumstances. They say our boys are proving to be wonderful wonder-ful fighters. I read an article about the war in the Literary Digest and I had been in every one of the places mentioned there. Peasants Are Sad. The elderly French women, peasants, peas-ants, look at us with sad eyes, and the3 pity us more because we are so far away from home than because be-cause we. are in the war. The French marvel at the Americans because they always seem to be in a hurry and want to get things . done and have it over. The French take their own sweet time about everything, and they always argue over" that. If you stop and ask a Frenchman the. road, and he begins to direct you, another Frenchman v.iil dash up and explain that he knows a much better. Then the argument begius and you can hear them a mile away. Then a crowd collects to hear and see the excitement excite-ment and I drive away totally lacking lack-ing in the desired information. We only get one plate to eat from. First we have soup and we have to mop out our plate with a piece of bread so they can put the meat on the plate. But the worst of it is we have to eat the bread. Then we do the same before we get our bread and cheese for dessert. Incidentally, I've made many a breakfast on bread and Roquefort cheese. Imagine that for breakfast; break-fast; something like New F.ngland people having pie for breakfast.