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Show FORMER OQHIE 1 1 i THE BATTLE OF . i W RIDGE Tho dramatic story of tho battle of I Vimy RIdgo was told this morning to I Mr. and Mrs. J. V. East of WArren, in a letter from their nephew, Ernest, who participated in tho battle. I Ernest left Ogden two years ago I and enlisted In Canada. Ho formerly I worked at tho sugar factory In Wil- son Lane. j His letter follows: "Somewhere In France, April 24, 1917. "Dear Uncle Joe, aunt and cousins: Just a lino to let you know that I am all right and hope you are all tho same. I am going to try and tell you I a little about the battle of Vimy Ridge, j which I was in on Easter Monday, the 9th of April. "On Easter Sunday night and early Monday morning we got ready for the attack. We wero all in tho trenches, ready for the kick-off minute, and every man was anxious and ready. There were a few shells dropping around as usual, until tho time came li for the barrage to start by tho artil-i j lery. At 5:30 a. m., all tho guns open- j ed up and it was a continual roar. I 1 Then came tho kick-off. The officers jj shouted 'Alright Boys!' and over the i i bags we went, across no-man's land H after Fritz. My two chums, I had chummed with over since I have been j in France, were killed right at the i start I passed them both, Beelng thoy I; were dead, and kept on going. Ono a of them, his name was Dlscon, died g with a smile on his face. I don't 2 think I will ever forget it "Well, wo got over into the German z, lines. The trenches had been level- ed by our artillery barrage, the wire that we had in front of his trenches was completely blown away. Wo got a in among the 'Fritzies' and started to send them back to our lines as pris-a pris-a oners. They had their hands in the air anu wero snouung .uercy ivam-rad,' ivam-rad,' almost as soon as we struck them. One 'Fritz' came along with his hands up, shouting 'Hlmmel.' I didn't know what he meant After wo had gained our objectives, we started to search the dug-outs, that hadn't been blown in, for souvenirs. Wo found all kinds of things, and a lot of Germans, ttfo. For about twenty minutes, min-utes, we sat laughing and talking, when, all at once, four Germans came up out of a little room that we hadn't found. They stopped quickly when they saw the shining bayonets pointing point-ing at them. Wo sent them back to our lines and then continued our souvenir sou-venir hunting. "Some of tho dug-outs, about 30 or 440 feet deep, we found fitted up pretty pret-ty nice. The rooms had bunks in them, which came In handy for us and we had a good sleep in them, after things got settled. "There Is much more I could tell, but you will have to wait until I get back home, if my luck holds out I suppose I have had some close shaves by machine gun bullets, which were sure whistling past me, but I wont through 'Jake.' One shell nearly buried bur-ied me. But tho way a follow looks at it out here, an inch js as good as a mile. I tasted some of tho German black bread, but I didn't like it It has a strong taste to it "This is tho first time I have had a good chance to write to you since Ave started to advance April 9th. Hoping you are all well, I Remain. "Your loving nephew, (Signed) "ERN." "Address my letters to 'Runners instead in-stead of 'A' company, as I am a battalion bat-talion dispatch runner." ' nn |