Danville High School - Medley Yearbook (Danville, IL)

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 Crtter from IHesrh m France Dernau, February 27, 1919. Dear Folks: It seems to be doubly hard for me to write now that the war is over and I can’t account for the reason either. Certainly it isn’t because I haven’t time, 1 ecause I do hardly anything at all. For the last three days I have been out ever}- day to the range where the battalion has been firing. It is interesting enough too, because now that the war is over these hard heads are going back to the old American methods of firing which aren’t a bit effective considering the scientific study of artillery worked out by the French and which we are only now discarding. You really cannot realize how the French have perfected the study of employment and effect of light and heavy field pieces. Of course the American methods of fire are absolutely new to me, as well as to the officers of the battalion, so you see I am not so badly off because all I learned at Laumur is fresh in my mind and I can grasp things a bit more quickly than those who haven’t had anything new for a year or so. I fired a problem today and had as targets what we judged to be a clump of bushes or a pile of manure. I did succeed in landing a tew in the thing and later found out that it was a pile of satabaga. I’ll wager that farmer won’t need to chop up the teed for the cattle for several weeks. I have hardly any work to do around here. I don’t stand any guard or inspection let alone get up for reveille. I do lots of riding on horseback, going to and from the range daily, a total distance of seme 20 kilometers. This constant loafing combined with the really good meals we are getting three times per day and the extra waffles and jam and coffee cake fed us by the people where we stay are making me fat. I almost have a double chin and have almost as much trouble climbing stairs as Emma Claussen. Did Fred C------------- get taken in by the draft or was the war good to him too? I suppose you have located the region occupied by the American Army of Occupation haven’t you ? If so you will have seen Dernau on the Ahr river. The “dorf,” as the people call the town, is small but pleasant. The people live by means of their vineyards built on terraces rising up the side of the mountains. You will no doubt, be astonished to find that people are considered wealthy who own the two or three acres of vineyards they cultivate. But that is true. However, Dernau is too small for the Battalion of Artillery stationed here, so this afternoon after range was over we went to Gclsdorf, a town about fifteen kilometers away, and arranged for billets. We move Sunday. I have not had any mail from Otto lately. I believe he is somewhere up in the zone of occupation, but I do not know for cei tain. Don’t won}- about the kid now, he is right at home in this country. 0. K. With love, E. Lesch, Ed. Sgt., F. A., U. S. A. Page Twenty-two

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O ur of tr Half a millenium ago no one had ever thought that man could fly as well as a bird. Even if one of the noted scientists had proposed such a machine, the populace of the universe would have committed him to an insane asylum. But coming to the twentieth century where genius works undistuibed, the great Wright Brothers’ bird of the air was flown. The Wrights were condemned by everyone, but they worked on until their machine was perfected to a safe degree. The aeroplane was used very little for half a score of years, but those that were crafty and brave enough astounded the world by the marvelous loop-the-loops, nose dives, and other hazardous manoeuvres. The value and the seivice of the aeroplane was never realized until the German autocrat set the world aflame and bathed the land in blood. His great falcons of the air swooped down on defenseless towns, to kill the flower of humanity. The eyes of the Allies opened quickly, but their air forces were not up to standard. After three years of fighting across the water Uncle Sam was forced into the fray. He developed a great air force as well as a superb army and navy. Every factory available for this kind of manufacturing was ordered to help build the great squadron of the air. Millions were spent in building training fields and aeroplanes, but what did this amount to when the future of our country wras at stake. With the help of our allied experts, we built those much needed planes and trained thousands of our young men in the art of flying and battling with the Huns. Our planes and men were superior to the Huns, because in one month the American Flying Corps brought down one hundred and ninety seven planes officially recorded. The great Liberty motor that spelled freedom when it was mounted in a plane has become the greatest motor for service. So we must thank the experts and mechanics of our aeroplane corporations for their unceasing toil to outwit the Hun. Thomas Hanson. Page Twenty-one

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 JVmrtfyer letter from lesd} Gelsdorf, Germany, March 3, 1919. Dear Folks: We have changed homes once more and are new “hoch auf dem Beig” in a town some ten kilometers away fiem Deinau. It seems as though there was not room enough at Dernau for the battalion, so we changed—“A” and “B” moving here and “C” to Eckendorf, a few kilometers away. One way it was hard to move because we had gotten to know the people real well and were beginning to feel veiy much at home. Especially where we stayed and at another family, where Dwig stayed before I came, were we well treated. We couldn’t go to see this last family without their baking waffles and let me say that Katie, who was chief cook, was some artist when it came to a point of handling the waffle iion. The morning we moved they made sandwiches for us to take with us, making us promise to come back to visit them. Of course, you realize my vocabulary is of great value to me here and although I make frequent mistakes, yet I manage to convey a meaning and that is enough. We have a pretty nice place here too, living with an old widower, his two daughters and son, aged 19, 16, 14 respectively. Christine, the younger daughter, gees to school at Bonn, not far from here but lying within English limits. We, here, are only three kilometers from the English line, but do not fraternize very much. For a conquered people these Germans take things very calmly, philosophically admitting that Germany was in the wrong, and very, very thankful that we were sent to occupy this portion in place of English or French, whom they still hate cordially. I cannot account for the cmnity between French and Germans. I really feel that it is due, in a great measure to the press and ruling parties of both nations. They (the papers and politicians) are always warning and prophesying evil, mutually accusing one another of jealousy and greed. There is one universal feeling however, and that is hatred for England, who, they feel, has robbed them of a place in the sun. I have heard several people say that they are very glad Wilson came to Versailles because otherwise things would be sure to go hard with their country. There is more or less of a food scarcity, of course, but here in the smaller towns food is plentiful and there is no actual want except in the line of soaps, coffee and tea and shoes. Sugar (beet) is plentiful and easily bought for 45 pfennig a pound. Wheat flour may be had too, but the usual bread is baked from dark flour, tasting leal good. Crops last year were excellent and the people even feed large, clean potatoes to the cattle. They raise only thorobred Holsteins here and I wish you could see them. They really speak w'ell for the farmers. I had a letter from Otto today and he is still in the S. O. S. He seems well and getting along fine. The Madelien Christine just came in and we looked at a bunch of pictures from Bonn and the Rhine. This all ended up with an argument on “Who Won The War?” I am sending you a picture of Bonn, which she gave me. Lovingly, Ed. Page Twenty-three