South High School - Tiger Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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WJ ttitne Viccifiia-'gy Hagen '-if Q.-fi? ,A-4 iifgi, if 2 ext mg outh High at The Front WITH THE STARS AND STRIPES AT VERDUN SOMEWHERE IN I-'R,xNt:i1, November 21, I9l8. Dear Dadf You know that we are supposed to write our dads a Xmas letter, so, altho I wrote yesterday, will drop a few lines again. Got a lot of new equipment yesterday, as we are ex- pecting to leave this place in the morning. We are to be paid about ten dollars this afternoon, and yours truly can use it, as my other disappeared rather quickly. In the papers was an article telling us to write all about our experiences over here. You know that would take me about a year, however. As our letters are not censored, I can tell a few things about the last scrap I was in. After leaving the hospital in August, I went to Eu, from there to Rouen, and then spent a few hours in Paris. From there I went to Is-Sur-Til, where I spent a week ' before going to Bains-Les-Bains, an inland town near Epinal. I stayed there about a week, eight of us were staying with an old French couple. l had a good time there, went up into the hills nearly every day, picking berries, plums, etc. From Bains-Les-Bains I went to Remiremont, there taking a train something like the one at Wonclerlalitl to Cerardmer. We left there in trucks. which drove us over the mountains to Kruth. Then we .walked into the mountains to a camp where our regiment was. Our company had just come out of the trenches. We lost two men and four or hve wounded. After a ten days' stay, we packed up and started toward Verdun, walking, riding trucks and trains until we went into camp in the woods, as reserves in the St. lVlihiel drive. It was on this trip that we walked for eight and one-half hours in a clownpour of rain, and it was so dark that you couldn't see the man directly in front of you. I didn't take my pack off or sit down once in the whole time. Most of the time we walked in single file and in mud and water that reached half-way to our knees. Well, it all ended in our going up to the line near Verdun about the 25th of September. Five-thirty Thursday morning, September 26, we started over the top. Iwas acting as runner,', and was required to deliver the captains 16

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,' ---X' 3:9 QFSIC-2 Vfictmig Ciifgene l orders and to keep in touch with the other regiments. We lost hardly any men the first day, as we were in the second line and were getting mostly artillery fire -large shells. Next morning lFridayl we went over again, but lost only five or six men. We waited until three-fifteen in the afternoon for the tanks, and then started over again. This time we got some reception. We got shelled by the artillery, were gassed, and then the machine guns opened up. This time our com- pany lost thirty-five men in the wink of an eye. We started out with about 250 men, which is the full strength of a company. That evening we dug in and stayed for the night. We were shelled all night, and a machine gun kept raking us most of the night until some of the scouts went out and took it and thirty-tive Germans. We had taken eight hundred the first day. Saturday morning about four-thirty we started out again, and everything went fine until we started over a hill about noon. The platoon which I was in started over the top this time with about fifty men, and in less than five minutes we had only thirteen left. Men were blown to pieces all around us. Legs and arms were flying all around. After we got over the side of the hill we kept on going up the other side. However, when we got out on top of the next hill, they were shooting at us from all sides but the rear, so we had to get back to a strip of woods about 100 feet behind. But we were no better off here, as they kept shelling the life out of us, and their aeroplanes were flying over us about a hundred feet from the groundg their machine guns popped the dickens out of the boys. The small tanks were with us up to this time, and they drew artillery fire to beat the band. Early the next morning fSundayJ we were getting ready to go over again. 1 had just dropped down on the ground, when a bunch of big shells started pop- ping around us. I felt a hot pain in my foot, and upon looking down I saw a hole thru my shoe. I took it off, but put it back again when I saw the sock soaked with blood. I got up and found that I could walk pretty well, so started for the first-aid about one-quarter or one-half a mile away. They put a bandage on it, and I walked over a mile to get an ambulance. From then on, things began to be O. K., altho I was on a road and under shell fire until early Monday morning. I was hit three times at Verdun, and an explosive bullet put a few bits of powder in my cheek. My right-hand blouse pocket was blown away, a big bit of shell hit my shinbone, and a bit stuck in the back of my neck. But the fourth one was a little worse, so I went to the hospital. Altogether, I wouldn't take a millioii dollars for my experiences over here, altho it was at times hell on earth. Expect to be home in about three months and will then tell you about everything. Guess that I can do it better that way than in 'a letter, so will wait until I hit home before trying to tell any more. Hope you are both well and that I will soon see you both. Your son, RALPH PLANTEEN, Co. G, 140 Inf. 17 ififln 'wil . we Ls. ff fiat! ...s I MEZZ. 14 X :iii ETSTQ