| Show LETTER FROM CLAIR HOWLEY writes to father about trip to france Ces ivres france nov NOT 24 1918 dear deddie daddie we are all glad over here that censorship has been slack cued cold enough that each boy can write his folks telling just where he is situated and all about his life over eye herd hera I 1 very much to tell other than where I 1 a am I 1 had any experience at all compared with buys boys who have tone gone over the top however I 1 have haie had a number of hikes at night with till a heavy pack on my back I 1 have also experienced theonne the game inconveniences all other boys did who have crossed the at antic on crowded transport ships during the long lone period of submarine danger and all these them things but I 1 realize liz I 1 I 1 was waa very very lucky in I 1 reaching ach france just jost when I 1 did and am perfectly willing to stay atay until the last man of the A E F has hai gone home if I 1 am needed now for a little bit of my trip after leaving the new york harbor oct ve a were on the water anus antil we landed at liverpool england nov ath from the harbor at liverpool we hiked a few miles milea to a so an called rest camp edilee ash and spent the night remainder of the night and part of the next day there about noon nov we got on an the tram train and rude rode across england to rommy city citi where we e not off the train and hiked to a camp a few miles out of the city called camp woodly and we were in woodley when the armistice was signed there was some shouting going on there we marched back to to romsey rommy after staving ancamp at camp woodley two nights and a piece a from about 5 00 a in till morning and boarded the train a and rt it rode to south hampton harbor where a we again boarded a crowded boat and had a night rido ride across th english channel when we got out on an deek deck the next a at morning early we were in the rench harbor of it was hard bard to realize that I 1 was 1 in fran france at last the place where for four years they had been bass c contending with the war dare demon it seemed a dream that I 1 was in france where so ao many men had given their lives in the fight for democracy and that hat it was only a few hundred miles to the place of actual fig fighting hug but as I 1 marched through the streets of the city cit and saw the poorly clothed children begging for a souvenir or bully beef as they called it meaning earned corned beef which we we were reQuite quite willing to give up having been fed on it to a great extent for some time to see women plodding around amund in big wooden shoes doing a mans work and many things of this nature datum soon boon brought me to the real that there had been base a fierce war and elm also fierce struggle for ex stance latance going on here we topped stopped at another british rest camp here I 1 enjoyed my ard tack and corned beef here as an well an ai the rest of them not very good at s that I 1 we remained there a couple of nights and then boarded the box cars fur for we know where rod and landed here at this bit big ame american rican camp near the little french town clied called ge this thin camp with its ita numerous HW some a quarter of a mile long lone id the bise base of supplies for american troops I 1 think it he ha many barracks but they were all occupied when we mine came here and so an we are camping t tots stitt 1 present we are working quite hard in warehouses warehouse now but dont know how boim mr we will 11 be here I 1 would like to be home with you I 1 all for far and christmas 1 I can see me that hat long ions table at grand covered nias mas covered with everything good to eat turkey and gee goal a good place piece of pie or take cake would taste good tell all the folks to write to me and it that now I 1 am settled down so I 1 will have a little chance and will write its to as many as I 1 can father just neure figure on me being home within a year and dont worry about me as all I 1 la well with your boy clair |
