Stephen W. Thompson letter to Squire H. Andersen - March 18, 1918
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France [March] 18 1918 Dear Squire : - I have your letter of [January] 29 and am glad all is well with you. you said you don’t know whether my incoming mail was examined or not. Your letter was all right. The French censors opened it & sealed it with a, “controle Postal Militare”. The clippings are quite good. I have not seen Vernon since I have been here but have heard from him several times. Most of us have had leave to Paris for a week at sometime or other since we have been here. We went over the routes followed by other tourists & saw, Notre Dame Cathedral, Napoleon’s Tomb, [Eiffel] Tower, the [Tuileries], Triumphal Arch the seine & many other places of interest. There are no buildings in Paris of over six or seven stories but they are all quite beautiful from an architectural standpoint & have much sculpturing
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in their construction. There are several long, straight beautiful boulevards but most of the streets are short and crooked. Instead of two streets crossing at a point there are usually four to six, and there is one place called the “Star” where sixteen streets come into one center. There are very few shows running & their performances are not at all elaborate. The people are hardly in the mood altho soldiers back on leave want some entertainment. We have had much bad weather here but the mud is drying up and we hope for better now. Those who told us of sunny France before we left the states must have been talking about her African possessions. It sure does not apply to Northern France for half the year at least. I went on a bombing raid several weeks ago
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and we were attacked by eight Boche planes. I shot down the one that was attacking me & the others were soon driven off. We were with a French squadron. The other American had a brisk fight but his Boche got away. We were up over three miles and it was Cold as the North pole. I had my gloves off less than five minutes and froze my hands so badly that I had them in bandages for three weeks. There was very little air & I had to breath deeply & fast to keep my head straight. One observer did faint. When they landed the landing was rough & the machine turned over & pitched the observer out in a summersault on the ground. He regained consiousness just as he was bowling over the grass. You should have seen his face. He looked like he thought the world had come to an end. The trip was very interesting to me and I am glad I
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took it & came out so satisfactorily. Wishing you continued success, as ever, (Sgd) Stephen W. Thompson O.K. S.W. Thompson 2nd Lt. C.A.C. 1st Aero Squadron
Details
| Title | Stephen W. Thompson letter to Squire H. Andersen - March 18, 1918 |
| Creator | Thompson, Stephen W. |
| Source | Thompson, Stephen W. Letter to Squire H. Andersen. 18 March 1918. Thompson, Stephen W., Letter. C1729. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. |
| Description | In this March 18, 1918 letter to his friend Squire H. Andersen, Stephen W. Thompson described a furlough to Paris and his role in an aerial bombing raid. |
| Subject LCSH | Aerial gunners; World War, 1914-1918--Aerial operations |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
| Site Accession Number | C1729 |
| Contributing Institution | The State Historical Society of Missouri |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the State Historical Society of Missouri: 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri, 65201-7298. (573) 882-7083. |
| Rights | The text and images contained in this collection are intended for research and educational use only. Duplication of any of these images for commercial use without express written consent is expressly prohibited. |
| Date Original | March 18, 1918 |
| Language | English |