The Boche are a bunch of low-bred dogs! Wait till we get through with them.

Millery is a small town on an oxbow in the Moselle River in northeastern France. It really is a lovely spot. Two brooks run down separate valleys through the town, forming a V, before they empty into the Moselle. The streets rise up through these valleys on high bluffs. The architecture is typical for the region--houses with wooden beams, stone/stucco walls and tile roofs. Due to its topography on the east bank of the Moselle, Millery has been spared being speared by freeway or railroad, leaving its quaintness intact. The times I've been fortunate enough to visit Millery, I got the feeling that it hasn't changed that much from those weeks in the late summer of 1918 when my grandfather and his comrades were billeted there. Time seems to have stood still.

Wednesday, August 28, 1918:

We have had three different homes in this little place of Millery. We are now in a large, prosperous farm house on the edge of town. These towns up here have not been evacuated. Even Pont-à-Mousson was full of civilians until about a month ago. Gardens are full and prosperous looking. The family who lives on and runs this farm were born here. The old lady’s parents and grandparents have lived right here for 200 years. This particular old lady went through the battle of 1870 right here. She told us that it was different in those days from what it is now. She has had Boche officers in this very house. All that was necessary then was to give them a bottle of wine and the place was safe. The Boche have not advanced further than Pont-à-Mousson in the present war.

Have been out on post twice since we have been in this sector. Once to a place called Maidières or part of Pont-à-Mousson and once to Woods #3. I expect to go out again tonight. All of our posts are very far forward, one being within 500 yards of the lines and everybody living above ground. Four more posts are within a mile of the lines and in very delicate places should anything break. The lines of resistance and most of the artillery are behind us on these posts. We are up with the machine guns and snipers. Went with Capt. Whitney up to an observation post when I was on duty at Woods #3. We could look right down into Bochland, but only with the aid of glasses could we see beings. We saw a couple of Boche limbers on the road and some soldiers fishing in pond some way back. An observation balloon had been pulled down and was lying on the ground not very far back. After we had found it with the glasses we could see it with the naked eye. I tried to tell the captain that he should report it to the artillery post, but he seemed to think they must know about it and didn’t want to butt-in.

Beautiful weather, and wonderful nights for avions. Night before last a whole squadron of Boche came over apparently on their way to Nancy. There were clouds coming from that direction and they looked like rain clouds. Later it did rain. Anyway the planes turned without reaching Nancy and flew back over us again. They dropped a couple of flares and for about half an hour kept this place hopping up and down with bomb after bomb. They didn’t bother this end of town, but played havoc with the other end where most of the civilians live. In one household they killed the wife and two daughters of an old man who comes around to our camp after scraps and swill. He is almost crazy. One other old lady was killed and several others wounded including two small children and only two soldiers (both Americans, wounded slightly). That bunch of low-bred dogs! Wait till we get through with them.