This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Will Classification: Military Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/AQB.2ACI/255.4 Message Board Post: Plattsmouth Journal, Thursday, August 29, 1918 FROM THE ARMY AND THE NAVY TWO LETTERS FROM THE BOYS, ONE IN FRANCE, THE OTHER IN CHICAGO R WILLS WRITES FROM FRANCE George McDaniels Writes From the Great Lakes Training Station. >From Monday’s Daily. With the Colors in France July 14, 1918 Dear Mother: Well, we have landed at last, and have sure been on the go for the past month. We were assigned to a new regiment yesterday and all the fellows seem to be good ones. We are only ten miles from the front, and believe me, we can hear the big guns at night and see plenty of aeroplanes in the day. Everything is quiet all day long, a person would not think there was any war, until about dark, when everything starts at once. I am a drive at this time and have to care for my two horses, with which I help pull the guns when we move. Four of us sleep in a little shelter tent, and it is pretty cool for its rains nearly every day. We had to hike about fifteen miles the other night to get here, and carry a pack which weighed about seventy pounds, and believe me I was all in when we landed, and still I am pretty stiff. The boys seem to think over here that it won’t last very much longer, but we don’t know any more than you do about it. The Germans that are captured seem greatly pleased that they are prisoners, and do not require much watching, for I guess they get pretty good eats and place to sleep. Well this will be all for the present; hoping this finds you all feeling fine as I am, with love. ROBERT B. WILL, Battery A. 149 F.A., A.E.F., France Plattsmouth Journal, Thursday, September 19, 1918 RIGHT FROM THE WESTERN FRONT [front page] ROBERT WILL WRITES TO HIS MOTHER REGARDING CONDITIONS IN WAR ZONE. August 6th, 1918. My Dearest Mother: I will write you a few lines this evening. I am feeling fine and near the battle front. We are giving the Germans about all they want. We sure have been doing some fighting here lately, have captured a lot of prisoners. I sure have been on the go since I landed and have seen a good deal of France. I am with one of the best companies over here. We get all we want to eat and plenty of sleep. I see many of the air battles on nice days, and believe me they are exciting to watch them, have seen many enemy places brought down. Many days it is so quiet you would not think there was a war, but along about dark, there is something doing. Once can hear the big shells go whizzing by. Well I suppose the U.S. papers are full of the battles, and no doubt you know more of the news than we do. I have not seen a paper that was printed since in June, as it takes a long time to get them. We passed through a number of villages on our way here, and we found them pretty well shot to pieces. In them we saw many German prisoners, they were either old men or mere boys, which they have not so may millions left. Just at this time, it is pretty rainy here and but for the paved roads it would be pretty difficult to get around, as it rains most everyday. You can see how nice it is to live in a little shelter tent, but most of us boys are good and healthy. I will send you some German souveniors [sic] as there are lots of them here, helmets and the like. They were either in too big a hurry to take them or had lost them. I could write you many things, but I will wait until I get back to the good old U.S.A. again and tell you. Hoping this finds you all feeling as fine as I am. With love, PVT. ROBERT B. WILL, Address B.F. 149 F.A. A.P.O. 715, A.E.F. Plattsmouth Journal, Thursday, October 24, 1918 ROBERT WILL WITH RAINBOW DIVISION [page six] WRITES HIS MOTHER, FROM HEART OF FRANCE, TELLING OF WAYS OF THE WAR IN HEART OF BIG BATTLE Tells of the Retreating Huns, And Of the Amount of Prisoners Taken. The following letter was received from Robert WILL by his mother, written from the battlefields of France, where he is with the Rainbow Division: France, Sept. 12th Mrs. A.S. WILL, Plattsmouth, Nebr., Dear Mother: Well I had better write you a few lines. I am feeling fine, and hope you are also. Say, see if you can get me some safety razor blades, and send me, I cannot get any here. Say but they have a fine country here and the roads, they really beat ours, but that is all they beat us in. Living high, I should say I was. I paid equal to a dollar for eggs the other day, but they tasted fine though. And candy and ice cream one cannot get at all. But I will make up for that when I get back to the States. September 15th I have carried the letter I wrote for two weeks, and did not get to mail it, nevertheless, I am thinking of dear old home and the dear folks, and the way things look here it will not be long before we can get home and shake hands with all the friends there, and tell of some exciting times, for we have had them. We will see more, though we have the Huns on the run, and sure they have good reasons for running. We caught a battery of horses and captured and killed a big cow, and had some fresh meat for dinner. It sure looked good just after the drive started to see the large bunches of prisoners coming back, and we will have more soon. We are having great weather here now, all of us are feeling just fine, also hoping this finds all in old Plattsmouth feeling fine, and tell the friends all hello for me, tell Father I will bring him back a three-inch German gun. Next day, Sept. 16th. Dearest Mother: I received the two long looked for letters written August 19th and was certainly glad to get them. I am in the same division of the RIPPLE boy, only he is in the infantry and I in the artillery. Ask Opal what division I am in as I cannot mention it in the letter. It is the best Division in France. We sure have got some record. It seems strange that we are near those whom we know and do not know it, but we generally fight during the night and sleep in the day. We are having great weather here, plenty of rain and everything looking fine. Sorry it is so dry and hot there, you might have some of our moisture and cool weather also. We sleep fine, but we have something else to think of but eating and sleeping. What we are after is freedom for all Nations, and we are darn soon going to have it. Now mother do not worry or send me anything to wear or eat. I have plenty to carry on my back now, the less the better. I do not see how I can write all the folks, so tell them what news I ! write. You want to look more closely at my address. You forgot to put on A.P.O. 715. Well hoping this finds you well, I am with love. Your boy, ROBERT B. WILL Plattsmouth Journal, Thursday, December 19, 1918 A LETTER FROM ROBERT WILL. He Writes His Parents And Others Regarding the Closing of the War. >From Saturday’s Daily. Robert WILL who has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the late war has written from the battle front on the day that the fighting stopped. His letter dated on November 11th tells that the day the fighting had stopped, and the portion in which he was engaged, had been the most bitter in which he had been engaged. The company in which he was in had been almost entirely wiped out. He had come out of the dust, and smoke of the conflict without a wound. He sends greetings to his parents and friends, telling of his safety, and the loss of many who were with him but a short time before. Plattsmouth Journal, February 24, 1919 LETTER FROM ROBERT WILL IN GERMANY. TELLS OF BATTLES IN CHICH HE PARTICIPATED – GERMANS NOT STARVING WAS IN MUCH HARD FIGHTING Says Report Current They are Going to Get a Furlough – Wants to Go to Coblenz on Rhine. >From Thursday’s Daily. The following letter has been received from Robert WILL, who is now in Germany, and but a short distance from the Rhine river, where he is doing duty with the Army of Occupation, after a long siege of hard fighting with the A.E.F., in which he barely escaped injury several different times. It is Robert’s greatest desire to be privileged to visit the city of Coblenz, on the Rhine, and to get a good look at this great German stream before he returns to the states, but if they told him he might sail for home tomorrow, we bet dollars to doughnuts that he’d forget all about his ambition to take a sail on the Rhine. His letter, written to his mother, Mrs. A.S. WILL, of this city, follows: Ringer, Germany, Jan. 16. Dear Mother: Having a little time this morning. I am writing you a letter to tell you I am still feeling fine and hope this finds you likewise. We are staying five in a small room, but with plenty of heat and light. We certainly have had fine weather here since we landed. It has hardly been cold enough to freeze the ground. I hope it remains warm, for doing guard duty on a cold night is not just to the liking of most of the boys. The report is current here now that they are going to give us a furlough, and if so, I want to go to Coblenz, which is on the Rhine, and is about fifty kilos, or thirty miles to the east of us. I hope the leave of absence is allowed, for I would like to see the city and take a sail up the Rhine. Our largest town close here is Ahsweuler, and it is here we go when not on duty. By the looks of things, I think we will be home by 1920 if nothing else turns up. We had thought that we would be among the first to return, but those who fought so hard in the S.O.S. near Paris, and who are all run down, were decreed to be the ones needing the rest more than we, and so have been ordered back first. Say, by the way the papers talk, one would think the Germans are starving, but from what I have seen, they are not so bad off, although I will admit they have poor bread. Let them eat it a few years though, and maybe they won’t be so anxious for another war. They raise lots of wheat, potatoes and sugar beets and every barn is full of sows, while the yards are filled with chickens, so they cannot be so badly off as the pretend to be. Here is a brief account of where we have been from July 1st until the 11th of November, the day the armistice was signed: Landed July 1st at Liverpool, England, and from there went to South Hampton, leaving there July 4th on our trip across the English channel. We landed at LaHarve, France, where we remained but a few days, and then went by rail to the Champagne front, where I joined the 149th Field Artillery, 42nd Division, and was there in the critical fighting from July 14th to July 18th, and had the honor of being with the only American Division to fight in General Gomand’s army, where we so gloriously obeyed his orders, “We will stand or die,” and by our iron defense, rushed the German assault, making possible the offensive of July 18th to the west of Rheims. From Champagne we were called to take part in exploiting the success north of the Marne. Fresh from the battle front before Chalins, we were thrown against the picked troops of the Germans. For eight consecutive days we attacked skillfully prepared positions, capturing great stores of arms and ammunition. We forced the crossing of the [looks like] Oruoq, took hill 212 [or 213], Sergy, Mency, Femes and Segnes. We drove the enemy, including the Imperial Guard division, the depth of fifteen kilometers, and when our Infantry was relieved we were in full pursuit of the retreating Germans. So our Artillery continued to progress and support another American infantry division in the advance to the [blurry] V—le after being there for some time another unit came along to relieve us and we thought we were going to get a good long rest, but after being back at the little village of Hellicourt for ten days, we were called to help take part in the battle of St. Miehiel, where on September 12th, we helped to drive the Germans back toward Metz, taking many towns and villages. From there we went to the Argonne front, where on November 1st we started the last drive, following the retreating Germans to the gates of Sedan, where we were on November 11th when the armistice was signed. So we pulled back and got the rest of our companies and started on our journey to the Rhine, and I am now waiting at the little village of Ringer for the peace pact to be signed, after which we expect to get the orders, “Homeward March.” ROBERT B. WILL B.F. 149, F.A., A.P.O. Plattsmouth Journal, Monday, January 13, 1919 LETTERS FROM BOYS ACROSS THE WATER THREE NATIVE SONS OF PLATTSMOUTH WHO HELPED TO WHIP THE HUNS HOPE TO RETURN HOME SOON Their Letters Tell of Some of the Late Battles Fought and of the Thrilling Experience Had The following letters have lately been received from their writers who are now in France, where they took part in the world war and contributed their bit to the defeat of the Hun hoardes bent upon overrunning the world, and tell of their various experiences during the last weeks of the fight, as well as express the hope that they may be permitted to return home soon: Nov. 29, 1918. Dear Mother: Well we are now settled down in a little village in Luxenburg, where we spent Thanksgiving day and ate Thanksgiving dinner. We were not lucky enough to get any turkey, so our battery went out and bought a nice pig and had it roasted and with what other things they bought, we had a fine meal. I don’t think we will stay here long, but will move on towards the Rhine. I certainly have seen some real battles during the four months I spent at the front. I was in the battle of Champigne [sic] July 14, the battle of the Marne July 18, the battle of St. Michel September 12th, and the battle of Verdun November 1st. So you see the rainbow division has been in some real battles. I see by the papers they are sending the boys home as rapidly as possible, but don’t know when this Division will get to go. Hope we are there to spend Christmas for that will be some Christmas to remember, indeed. Hoping this finds every one at home feeling fine, I am, with love, ROBERT B. WILL, B.F. 149, F.A. ** Robert Will returned to Plattsmouth on or around May 12, 1919.