Sidney Towner Phelan letter to mother - July 25, 1918
Transcript
[St. Remi Country Club letterhead] July 25, 1918 [censor’s stamp] Dearest Mother, Yesterday I got your letters of June 28 and July 2nd and Nenaine's of June 28. I can't understand your getting so few letters. I didn't write as many as usual at that time but I certainly wrote more than you mention getting. I wrote you that we were in action and a rather big one. It's most interesting, absolutely different from any other action I have seen. Our post is a little beyond a town we spent some months in last winter. It certainly has changed. Signs in German are nailed up all over and the whole place is littered with abandoned Bosche equipment. The house I used to live in is a perfect wreck and where my bed was
Transcript
is the scene of a direct hit by a not too small shell. Our old popote has the front wall caved in and the cafe will no longer serve as our club house. I found some Bosche war tobacco there. It wasn't tobacco at all just dead leaves from trees crushed and put in bags. It didn't even smell like tobacco. Am sending you a few snapshots. They are mostly rotten. I wish I could go more into detail about this action. There are lots of things I'd like to tell you but can't on account of the censor. This whole sector is very familiar to me. I have often walked over the place they are fighting over here. When I was last here I never thought the place would see fighting. Lots of love, Towner
Details
| Title | Sidney Towner Phelan letter to mother - July 25, 1918 |
| Creator | Phelan, Sidney Towner |
| Source | Phelan, Sidney Towner. Letter to mother. 25 July 1918. Sidney Towner Phelan Papers, 1899-1960. A1209. Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri. |
| Description | Sidney Towner Phelan, a St. Louis, Missouri native, wrote this letter to his Mother while serving as a volunteer ambulance driver in France during World War I. In this letter, Phelan explained that his unit was seeing action and the town they were in had been taken over by the Germans since their last visit. He also described his living conditions in great detail. Phelan wrote that the house he was living in was a wreck and that his former bed was the sight of direct hit. |
| Subject LCSH | World War, 1914-1918--France; Soldiers--Billeting; World War, 1914-1918--Occupied territories |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
| Site Accession Number | A1209 |
| Contributing Institution | Missouri History Museum |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond those allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the Missouri History Museum: 314-746-4510 |
| 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. Contact the Missouri History Museum's Permissions Office at 314-746-4511 to obtain written consent. |
| Date Original | July 25, 1918 |
| Language | English |