Owen "Glen" Tudor letter to his mother- October 8, 1918
Transcript
(Sergeant Glen Tudor, Battery F, 128th Field Artillery to his Mother.) [October 8, 1918] France. Well, at last I have an opportunity to write, and here goes for as much paper as I have, which is not much right now, but I will write again in a few days, when we have been paid and I have a chance to buy some. I have been receiving your letters very regularly and have appreciated them you can be sure, but I have never rec'd any of the (news) papers yet. It takes a month for a letter to reach here. I have been to the front three times now, twice active , and once reserve. We had quite a nice time up in the mountains in a so called "quiet sector" and were finally shelled out. I wrote you front about this. (Note: Letter not received.) We then hiked to another front and went into reserve during a drive there. We then had a very hard march to another front and went into position without rest as soon as we arrived. We were pretty well worn out. 25 of our horses died on the trip, which was a night and a day march, with only a couple of hours rest at intervals to feed. Finally we got there. It was the first big drive we had been in, and the preparations were tremendous. We passed every kind of gun, tank, catapillar truck, and known implement of warfare. The Bosh were shelling the positions into wihch we went, which gave us a little excitement. Before the morning on which we started our barrage we carried ammunition all night. Just before dawn we began firing. For 2 1/2 hours we fired - our barrage creeping along ahead of the infantry; then we advanced to a new position. The boys of the 138th and 7th told us that our barrage playe havoc among the Germans. They carried the Germans back so fast that we did not fire again for sometime. We passed over several miles of ground that the Bosh had occupied but a few days before, and you could see that he had gotten out in a hurry. I am wearing a pair of Bosh sox - new ones - I got at a dug-out. This dug-out was full of German equipment of all kinds. I did not go in of course, for they mine some of them, but a look in at a window showed how hurriedly they had left. I saw a loaf of bread on the sill and examined it. It is very coarse and black. It cannot have but a few grains of wheat to the loaf. I don't see how they eat it, myself. These dugouts were very comfortable, however, which was natural, as they had been established here ever since the early days of the war. Here is a description of one of the dugouts I saw. A sort of trench runs back from the road into the bank for 30 yards; then the passage into the dugout began with 15 ft. of dirt over the roof. It was a 6x4 ft. hole, running straight back. I could not see the room, which must have been at the end. There was a pump for taking care of the water, and a fa n for expelling gas. Outside was a little weather cock for telling which way the wind blew, s that they might be ready for a gas attack, and a little nitch was cut out of a bank, and a wash pan stood in it. Beginning back about 20 feet another trench ran to the left of the main trench to the dugout. It was not so deep, but widened out and a table and benches were set in it, where the Dutch probably drank and played cards. Not so bad for war - eh?
Transcript
[page 2] When I saw this dugout it was strewn with hand grenades and American rifle bullets which told the grim story. We passed through several towns in which every house was a ruin and finally a long a shelled road to where we again went into position. Here we stayed for about a week and fired regularly. There was something about the water, or the way we had to live that made almost every man of us sick. Some are yet in a very bad way. Perhaps you can imagine what it was - a kind of digestional trouble. I got so weak myself that I could hardly keep going, but am practically O K now. Finally, we were relieved and we hiked 75 kilometers to these billets. We have not been paid for August yet, and here it is October. However, we expect to get it tomorrow. As they say: "It is a great life if you don't weaken." We have just received the news that the Central Powers want an armistice to discuss peace. The boys look upon this as the fore-runner of that finish, and sure hope it is. We must have a lasting peace, however, and no patched up affair. We can lick the Huns on the field, and may have to do it yet, for there is no telling how Wilson will take the peace offer. The Huns have proved themselves so tricky and so barbarous right up to the end that they are not to be trusted. Well, it is growing late, and I must close for this time. It may not be long now before we are singing "Hello, Broadway - Good-bye France". I will despise Germany and Germans as long as I live.
Details
| Title | Owen "Glen" Tudor letter to his mother- October 8, 1918 |
| Creator | Tudor, Owen Glen |
| Source | Tudor, Owen Glen. Letter to his mother. 10 August 1918. Westover, John G., Collection, 1910-1946. C3733. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO. |
| Description | In this October 8, 1918, letter, Owen "Glen" Tudor vivdly recounted battling in what was likely the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He also describes in great detail abandoned German dugouts. Tudor, a Maplewood, Missouri, native, served in the 128th Field Artillery in the 35th Division during World War I. |
| Subject LCSH | United States. Army. Division, 35th; World War, 1914-1918--Campaigns--France--Meuse; World War, 1914-1918--Trench warfare; Artillery; World War, 1914-1918--Armistices; Soldiers--Billeting |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I; Dugout |
| Site Accession Number | C3733 |
| 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 | October 8, 1918 |
| Language | English |