We have arranged for our section Thanksgiving banquet tonight

If you've ever been an American abroad on Thanksgiving Day you know it can be an a lonely time. In most places, it's just an ordinary Thursday in late November. But in communities around the world, Americans gather on that day to savor the tastes of home with each other, and, if the others are lucky, with local friends. 

And one hundred years ago, Grant and his comrades did just that in St. Avold, France--a town that had been German since 1870. 

A few days previously, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Thanksgiving declaration. Here's an excerpt:

"This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice. God has in his good pleasure given us peace. It has not come as a mere cessation of arms, a relief from the strain and tragedy of war. It has come as a great triumph of Right. Complete victory has brought us, not peace alone, but the confident promise of a new day as well, in which justice shall replace force and jealous intrigue among the nations. Our gallant armies have participated in a triumph which is not marred or stained by any purpose of selfish aggression. In a righteous cause they have won immortal glory and have nobly served their Nation in serving Mankind. A new day shines about us, in which our hearts take new courage and look forward with new hope to new and greater duties."



Thursday, November 28, 1918:

One of the biggest days I ever put in. We spent the night in barracks on edge of town -- perhaps the dirtiest barracks I have ever seen and I have seen some dirty ones. We are told that nearby coal miners had struck a short while ago, taking the barracks, which the Germans had left very clean, burned one building and threatened to burn the whole outfit if peace was not declared, strewn everything all over everywhere and raised hell in general. We cleaned up enough rooms for ourselves and found it an excellent place to live. Souvenirs galore (Boche spiked helmets by the hundreds, bayonets, gas masks, grenades etc., etc., etc.). [SSU] 649 pulled in this a.m. about noon after having gotten caught in traffic, spending the night in their cars by the road side. We have arranged for our section Thanksgiving banquet tonight at 8:30 at a cafe downtown. We are furnishing most of the food having purchased it at Nancy before leaving. Am about all in tonight as is everybody else.

Friday, November 29:

By getting special permit from the h.q. we were allowed to extend our banquet until 11 o’clock last night -- a rare privilege in the army. We ate soup, pork with apple sauce, potatoes and gravy, salad, bread, champagne, coffee with milk and sugar (much better coffee than the French make, I think) and cookies -- finishing up with cigars and cigarettes. Our Lieutenant was there together with Lieutenant Kendrick of 649. Oh boy! we did have a good time. The evening was made lively with snappy speeches from the members and music. Not one case of intoxication or rowdism. Everybody enjoyed themselves to the utmost. Sgt. Snader deserves a great deal of credit in handling this banquet so well against such odds. We broke up about 11:30.

Spent today in working on cars. Ahlers, Fraser, Kenderson, McEnnis and Titchner all got here last night in time for the banquet. At 2:30 p.m. an order came to move to Saarbrücken tomorrow reaching there by 11 a.m. This takes us up into Germany proper. Great excitement, but more work. This sergeant’s job is a thankless affair. 649 stays here. We go on alone. The order says we are to begin work on Dec. 1^st. What kind of work?

I got my first real bad impression of French troops today.

Late in the evening of November 26, 1918, SSU 647 received orders to move from the comforts of Nancy to the town of St. Avold, 75 km to the northeast near the present-day border with Germany. While excited to be going into Germany proper, the order to move was a bit of disappointment for the men as they had expected to stay in Nancy to celebrate Thanksgiving; they'd already bought all the food. Now they had to take it on the road.

An ancient town that has seen many invasions, St. Avold changed hands between the Germans and French several times in recent centuries; it's been in French hands (mostly) since 1918. Just north of the city center is the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial. The largest U.S. military cemetery in Europe, it is the final resting place of more than 10,000 Americans who died in WWII advancing against the Siegfried Line.

Wednesday, November 27, 1918:

Everything set to roll at 10 a.m. except two cars -- 17 and 20. We managed to get 17 started after drying his plug wires. 20 wouldn’t go so at 11 a.m. we pulled out leaving Anderson with Fraser to follow us when they were fixed up.

No sooner had we left Nancy than we began to hit French troops moving up -- infantry, artillery and supply trains. It looked like a whole army moving up. By 1 o’clock traffic was hopelessly tied up. Our convoy got split up and cars dropped out with engine trouble because of the hard running. 

I got my first real bad impression of French troops today. They deliberately blocked us at every chance. Wagons were driven across the road purposely to stop us so that we could not pass them. The infantry threw insinuating remarks our way and were intentionally mean. I can’t understand it. Are they no longer grateful to us? Don’t they want us over here? Or is it because of some unfortunate experience with somebody of ignorant Americans? One French infantryman shouted as we passed, “It’s the Americans! Don’t let them pass! They have done nothing but pass us since they declared war and now it’s our turn.” 

Finally, about dusk we drew the convoy off on a side road and made note of those present. Ahlers had returned to Nancy when about 15 km out with a burned bearing. McEnnis had burned out his low-speed transmission band and was left until tomorrow when we will send down after him. We decided to make our destination tonight if it took all night to do it so we pushed on in the dark. Risley dropped behind to wait for the truck; I took the rear to pick up the stragglers. At Château-Salins, Titchner ran into a hole in the road and smashed his front end all to pieces. I left him there with Rorty promising succor tomorrow. Before Woodie and I had picked up the convoy again we ran on to Kirkpatrick with engine trouble. We fixed him up and went on. Roads had cleared up with darkness and we met very little traffic. Wonderful roads! Soon ran on to Kerr (motor trouble). Kirkpatrick kept on going. Fixed Kerr up and started on. Picked up Kirkpatrick again at Landron where he was inquiring the road. We three cars went on together, Kerr in the lead and Woodie and me in the rear -- nothing but dim kerosene lights in the outfit. We made good time, however, over excellent roads. Stopped several times to inquire our way and once in a cafe for a beer. With the exception of French soldiers in these towns nearly everybody was German with whom we tried to talk (with very discouraging results) and some seemed none too glad to see us. 

We pulled in to St. Avold about an hour before the convoy. How we missed them I don’t know. We must have come another road. We met our Lieut. who had our quarters arranged. The D.S.A. to whom we were to report were very nice about our being about 4 hours late (D.S.A. - Divisionaire Service Automobile). We ate a fine supper in town, ordered in German from German-speaking people, before the convoy came up. Food shortage in Germany seems to be a joke. We ate beef steak, German-fried potatoes, bread (good bread), salad, coffee with sugar and milk and sweetened cookies for 4 fr. 50 c. -- cheaper than at Nancy. The people in the Cafe are very agreeable though they do speak nothing but German. It’s hard to tell where their sympathies lie. The bar tender wears an iron cross and as we ate, two Boche soldiers in uniform came in and sat near us and drank their beer. The town is full of French soldiers. St. Avold is divisional h.q. -- a very nice town. We are told we were lucky to be permitted to come here because it is the h.q.

May the New Year be the happiest of all years with peace – the joys of peace – felt and appreciated as never before in every home.

For most of his time in France Grant Willard was constrained by the rules of military censorship. He couldn't mention where he was or which battles were raging around him. Inexactitude was the order of the day. Occasionally when he was too specific, his letters would be cut to shreds literally by a censor.

But now that the war was over, he was free to write what he wanted to loved ones back home. In this long letter he summarizes the history of SSU 647.

Convois Autos.,
S.S.U. 647,
Par B.C.M.,
France.

Monday – Nov. 25, 1918

Dearest Family:-

This, my Xmas letter and Xmas present to you, is being composed under difficulties. We are seven in number, all hovered around a small coal stove in our barracks trying to keep warm. John Rority is reading Tennyson aloud to those who care to listen. The rest of us are busy on Xmas letters. You will therefore understand lack of sequence and misspelling.

Xmas, coming but once a year and being a time set aside for more or less unique purposes, should furnish incentive for something more or less unique by way of a letter to you on this occasion. I think I am in a position to give it to you. As I understand the new order we are now permitted to include in our epistles the names of towns, organizations and experiences in France without fear of being picked up by the censor. In fact, anything but a criticism of the army and army methods is to be permitted henceforth. So by way of novelty I shall try to give you a brief account of what we have been through of late, where we are now and what we expect to do between now and the time of expected embarkation.

Sandricourt base

I can cover the early history of section 647 in a very few words. We were organized at Sandricourt (the base camp of the U.S.A.A.S.) in October 1917. We were held there as a unit doing day labor on roads, barracks and Ford cars until February 1918. Sandricourt is a very small village about 35 miles northwest of Paris. The base camp was in a large château just out of the village. (The camp has since been moved.) In February the section bade farewell to Sandricourt, going to Fort Vanves just outside the walls of the city of Paris where two weeks were spent in assembling a section of Fords from the crate for our own use. It was hard work but we enjoyed every minute of it because we were at last off by ourselves under the command of our own lieutenant (a Lieutenant Anderson, now a captain, from most anywhere – no longer with us.) Incidentally we got an excellent lot of care by doing our own assembling and it surely has since proved to be to our benefit. On February 10 we reached Base Hospital 66 at Neufchâteau with our section of new cars, one Packard truck, one trailer kitchen, one Ford staff car, one Ford light truck and 20 ambulances. Yours truly was assigned to #11 in convoy and I am still driving the same #11. We were at Neufchâteau until April 15 doing evacuation work to and from various Base Hospitals in that section of the country and to and from hospital trains coming from the front or going to the larger hospitals. 

647 men at Neufchâteau

As you will remember, this stay at Base 66 marked a period of great discontent in the ranks of 647. We wanted to get to the front. We were doing child’s work. This period very nearly saw the breaking up of 647. Applications for transfer were being turned in regularly by many of the more discontented. We pulled out just in time to save disaster to join the 26th Division then on the Lorraine front in the Toul sector. The 26th, you know, is a Massachusetts division and has made quite a name for itself as fighters over here. Though the front was not particularly lively in this sector at this time we found we had our hands full with a division of inexperienced men and officers on a front of their own for the first time. It was also the first time they had worked with an S.S.U. section and many complications ensued before we were finally understood. 

We finally ended with the 26th by taking over all the evacuating of wounded and sick from the first aid dressing stations to the regimental aid stations. This kept us all on post practically all the time our only salvation being the comparative tranquility on the front. It was during the Seicheprey affair (when the Boche came over and held this American town for about an hour) that I was gassed together with seven others in our section. We had two cars in Seicheprey when the Boche entered but they didn’t get far enough in to get our men nor our cars. We were also in the Xivray racket and lost two cars at Beaumont by direct fire. Later, in the Boche raid on Jury woods, we lost Tod Gillett and two more cars. And thus it went by spurts and spells. These raids were very exciting but the rest of it was very quiet.

About June 25 the 26th Division left the Toul front for Château-Thierry but instead of going with them as we expected we were left to work with the 82nd Division. The 82nd was a brand-new division and as green as they make them. At first they were brigaded with the French but later took the front over to themselves. The Toul sector quieted down considerably after the 26th left and we quite enjoyed ourselves for a time. Wow, but they were a green bunch of boys and officers. Some of the men could speak English but the majority of them could not. The officers were mostly southerners and on the whole, a very fine group of men. This division is called the All-American Division.  Met some Minnesota boys in the outfit but didn’t know any of them before coming over here.

On Aug. 6 the 89th Division, General Wood’s division fresh from the States, pulled into relieve the 82nd. On Aug. 7 Fritz put over a very heavy gas barrage and caught the 89th sleeping. So instead of pulling out with the 82nd as we had planned we were called in to help out the 89th. For two days steady we evacuated 89th gas patients. From 8 A.M. until 4 P.M. on Aug. 8th our section had evacuated 782 gas patients from this division. Before the day was over their own sanitary train came and we worked together until daylight of the 9th. At the park we gave our cars a complete overhauling and on Aug. 16 we left for Millery to rejoin the 82nd Division on the Pont-à-Mousson front, still in the same general locality as when near Seicheprey. Here we really began to get acquainted with our division and every one of us was ashamed of our first impressions. Maybe they were small; maybe they couldn’t speak English; maybe they were ignorant regarding military strategy but they surely knew what to do with a Boche when they ran across him and they weren’t a bit reluctant about going out looking for him either.

Montsec

On the morning of Sept. 12 the first real test was presented to our division.  This was the opening of the St. Mihiel drive. We were way on the right wing so our part was small compared to those divisions further west and north. One of the main pushes was made right out of Seicheprey by the 1st Division. In two days’ time after the drive started the old Mount Sec which we used to fear so much (because the Boche could see us on the roads from this hill when we worked that sector) was used as a headquarters for S.S.U. 649, then working with the 1st Division. It was during this drive that I got my first experience in working in territory recently evacuated b the Boche. I drove old #11 up into Norroy 24 hours after Fritz had pulled out and got many interesting souvenirs e.g. Boche helmets (one of which I sent you through the Red Cross but have long since given up as lost), Boche gas-masks, officers maps (which we turned in), Boche lace (a sample of which I sent to Dot but have also given up as lost), pictures, etc. We too a Boche goat for a mascot but it was soon stolen from us.

Then I went to the hospital with jaundice and didn’t rejoin the section until Oct. 9. I found them at Varennes in the Argonne Woods, still with the 82nd in the midst of that great and glorious drive which forced Fritz out his strongly fortified positions in the woods, out upon the prairie beyond where he was pursued by American tanks and cavalry. We moved our base several times during our stay in the Argonne as our boys advanced.  

One doesn’t see mention in the papers of the work of the 82nd. Why? Well, perhaps it’s because they’re not marines.  Perhaps it’s because they don’t happen to come from New York or Boston. Divisions on either side of the 82nd were mentioned and there is positive proof of the fact that it was the 82nd which saved these two entire divisions from very serious trouble – but, then, we musn’t discuss that here. At any rate, when I get back to the States and meet an 82nd infantry man my hat’s coming off to him. My one and only hope is that those boys get some kind of special recognition for the work they did in the Argonne. While up there we did work for the 77th, 42nd, 1st and 78th Divisions in addition to our own so we were in pretty good position to compare notes. Not one of them underwent any greater hardships than did the 82nd.

Country outside Amanty

On Nov. 3rd we left the Argonne going to a place called Amanty near Amanty near Gondricourt where we spent a pleasant few days of rest in some aviation barracks.  On the 11th we went way south to Clefmont, midway between Neufchâteau and Langres. Beautiful country but pretty cold just now. 

At Clefmont we traveled back to the old Park at Nancy where we are resting easily at the present writing. Our time is pretty much our own here, most of it being spent in predicting the future. The 10th [French] Army has already gone north into Germany but left us behind. I don’t see why they need us at all.  Still we are expecting to leave most any day for Metz or that district. What we will be doing in a week from today is a mystery. Our old 82nd has gone back the States but here we are.  We have no idea how long we will be kept over here but I don’t believe it will be long. Col. Jones of our service would like to send all the S.S.U. men home together with special accommodations in transit. If he is able to go through with it it may be a period of 6 months before things are ready. If not it may be accomplished in 2 months. However, this is purely guess work on my part. Those of us who enlisted over here may be mustered out over here as our papers call for in which case I’ll be on my way home just as soon as I can get my passport and enough money after being mustered out. But as long as we do have to remain on this side for awhile I wish we could get up into Germany. I think we will have the chance.

Willard House in Mankato

Our Thanksgiving dinner, I expect, will be the best we have had on this side. We are furnishing the food and a lady in town is preparing it and will serve it in her café. I shall think of you next Thursday as enjoying a ripping meal with Carolyn and Alice and on Xmas day as chewing the rag and turkey at our house. Wow, how I wish I could be with you.

I was mightily relieved to know that mother and John are well again. That influenza scare petrified me and I heard you were down with it. The death rate from the disease was terribly high in the larger cities, wasn’t it? Dot reported a terrific death rate in Philadelphia. It must be under control now with all the precautions which are in practice.

So, now then, I wish you all the merriest of merry Xmas’s and may the New Year be made the happiest of all years by a grand family reunion, with peace – the joys of peace – felt and appreciated as never before in every home.

God bless you all---
Grant.

P.S.:- I guess I’ve neglected to tell you that I am now a sergeant – a hated sergeant (every sergeant is hated – it’s part of his job) – of 647. I’m not drawing sergeant’s pay, however, for reasons which I shall have to leave for another letter. I was given the job for nothing. Wasn’t that splendid!!!!!!!?????
GRW.

Grant is made sergeant

While stationed in the Auto-Parc in Nancy, Grant and two comrades get promotions.

Monday, November 18, 1918:

The dope today is that we and 649 are attached to the 10th French Army now moving north to make triumphal entry into Metz in a day or two. We are busy washing and repairing our cars. The Parc is too busy so we are doing the work ourselves. I surely hope we get into Metz soon.

Wednesday, November 20:

Sgt. Jackson left us today to receive a 1st Lieutenancy in transportation. This leaves us with one [non-com] (Corp. Carey). We don’t expect McCrackin back. Wonder who will be our [non-coms]. Jack Swain, the logical man to be top-sergeant, refuses to consider taking the job. Pop Carey will never rise higher than a corporal.

Philippe Pétain receiving his marshal baton from French President Raymond Poincaré
and Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, in Metz.

The 10th Army entered Metz yesterday without us. Haven’t they got their nerve? Marshall Pétain led them in the celebration. I’m beginning to believe that we are to remain on this side of the line for a time yet and then sent back to the States. I don’t see what good the S.S.U.s can do in this occupation. Would like to go into Germany, but had much rather go home.


Thursday, November 21:

Today Lt. Smith, who has just returned from Paris, called Snader, Swain and myself together and made sergeants out of us. His original plan was to have Snader take charge of rations an general food supplies; Swain to look after the men, details, sending out of cars, etc. and me to look after cars, garage supplies etc. Jack balked on his job and in order to keep peace and get Jack to take anything at all he and I traded jobs. Mine is sure a stiff one. None of us are to draw sergeants’ pay because headquarters won’t O.K. any sergeants from Base Camp. We are merely taking these jobs to save the section from the disaster of Base Camp Sergeants.

Friday, November 22:

Haven’t fought with anyone yet over my new job. The fellows are perfectly wonderful about it. I’m sure we are going to have no trouble. Our Lieut., Jack Kendrick and McGuire went into Metz today and report a beautiful city with plenty of food and tobacco. Mac brought back many Boche spiked officer’s helmets.

Saturday, November 23:

Nothing new. Find my hands pretty full with my new job. The first big blow came today in an order from Headquarters to send to Base Camp 3 buck-privates and 2 1st class privates. A hurried meeting of the board of sergeants was called and we had a long session. We agreed pretty well on our privates, but our 1st class privates varied widely in one case. Stanley Prochaska just joined us from Base Camp. He was unanimously agreed upon for one of the 1st class. Byerly was finally picked for the second. For the bucks -- Morton, Womack and Suska were selected -- all men, with the exception of Byerly, who have recently joined us. We surely hate to send them off as badly as they hate to leave.

Too much excitement in one bunch is hard on a man’s constitution.

Grant Willard was blessed with a large and loving family that extended beyond his parents and siblings. The Willards of Mankato were a clannish bunch: grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And they were involved in each other's lives, families and businesses. One such was Carolyn M. Robbins (1864-1926). 

A first cousin of his mother, Carolyn was a teacher and librarian at the Mankato Normal School, which today is a branch of the Minnesota State University. She and her sister, Alice, lived together for many years and were an integral part the Robbins-Willard clan. Unlike many of their contemporaries, they traveled widely at home and overseas, and that fact added a touch of the exotic for their younger cousins. Alice became Grant's step-mother in the 1940s when she married his widowed dad.


Convois Autos.,
S.S.U. 647,
Par B.C.M.,
France.

11/18/18

Dear Family:

Haven’t written you since leaving Paris simply because we have been most occupied.  Spent two miserable days in finding the section and when I did find them they were in the midst of a grand and glorious advance in an interesting sector with every car and every man working night and day. We have been up here now ten days and are still busy though our division is slowly being relieved. We hope to be out of this in a few more days. Too much excitement in one bunch is hard on a man’s constitution. It has been raining now for two weeks, today being the first time the sun has appeared in two long weeks. But still our boys progress. We’ve got friend Boche in a bad hole and he is pulling out as best he can.

Carolyn M. Robbins (1864-1926)

Have just received Carolyn’s letter enclosing Miss Chauvet’s kind invitation. Am very sorry it couldn’t have come a week earlier so that I could have used it while I was in Paris. Have no idea when I will ever get in again. Thank Carolyn for me until I have time to write her a letter. I shall also write Miss Chauvet.

Am well and so is Hap though at present we are both coughing our heads off from wet feet. The weather is bad and we are soaked to the skin a good share of the time.

But cheer up! We’ll soon be out of here – long before this letter reaches you.

Had a piece of shell or a rock clip the first knuckles on my left hand the other night.  Just removed the skin – nothing serious. Our section’s casualties have been light during this action. Only two gassed and one wounded.  Fraser had a piece tear across his neck but only cut the skin. He was very fortunate as the shell struck less than 20 feet from him and wrecked his car. Two other cars have been destroyed and one patient killed while two of our boys were loading him in the car. Wow, Mother, I hate to think how fortunate we have been.  My fingers are crossed as I write this.

God bless you all and may this thing be ended soon.

Much love,

Grant.

Armistice terms will surely swamp the Kaiser and his gang

The next chapter for our band of ambulance men.

Shortly after the signing of the armistice, SSU 647 was detached from the U.S. Army's 82nd Infantry Division and seconded to the French Army of the Rhine. The ambulances were to help transport Allied prisoners of war from German camps and prisons in the occupied Rhineland.

Even before the Allied armies could take up their positions in Germany, POWs were streaming across no-man's-land in search of friendly faces, food and family.


Wednesday, November 13, 1918:

Am sick with a touch of grippe. Feel rotten! Armistice terms have come through. If we thought the terms to Turkey & Bulgaria were stiff, holy smokes, what would you call the terms to Germany? They surely swamp the Kaiser and his gang.

Thursday, November 14:

Feeling rottener! Got a lot o’fever. We are giving a dance for the town people this coming Sunday. The first time they have danced in four years. We’re going to give them a real party.

Friday, November 15:

We are leaving the division tomorrow for good to return to the French. There isn’t much celebrating around here. Major Sparr isn’t very vexed. We go to Valcourt about 5 km out of St. Dizier.

Saturday, November 16:

A Lt. Wolf joined us last night to take Lt. Smith’s place -- the latter being in Paris with the grippe. Am feeling a bit better today, but am riding in the staff car instead of #11 where I can keep warm and ride on a cushion. Lt. Wolf seems like a nice fellow. An ex-actor who played in “Under Cover” just before the war broke out.

Later -- Had a pretty good ride. Feel much better tonight than I did this morning. Had a long, cold ride up to Valcourt. We are quartered here in barns except that I am living in a house beside a warm grate-fire which Woodie built for me. Am very comfortable.

Orders have just come in for Kendrick’s section (649) and us to leave here for Nancy tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock. We sure are traveling these days. It now looks as though we are going to be part of the army of occupation.

How joyous everyone is!

At 5 a.m. on November 11, 1918, a German delegation signed an armistice agreement with the Allied Powers. The guns fell silent at 11 a.m. (Paris time), but during the intervening six hours there were nearly 11,000 casualties of which 2,700 were deaths.


The armistice terms contained the following major points:

• Termination of military hostilities within six hours of signature.
• Immediate removal of all German troops from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Alsace-Lorraine.
• Subsequent removal of all German troops from territory on the west side of the Rhine plus 30 km radius bridgeheads of the right side of the Rhine at the cities of Mainz, Koblenz, and Cologne with ensuing occupation by Allied troops.
• Removal of all German troops at the eastern front to German territory as it was on 1 August 1914.
• Renunciation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia and of the Treaty of Bucharest with Romania.
• Internment of the German fleet.
• Surrender of material: 5,000 cannons, 25,000 machine guns, 3,000 "Minenwerfers," 1,700 airplanes, 5,000 locomotive engines, and 150,000 railcars.

After four years, one of the bloodiest wars in human history was over.The total number of military and civilian casualties was more than 37 million. There were more than 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded.

The total number of deaths includes about 10 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians. The Allied Powers lost about 6 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. At least 2 million died from diseases and 6 million went missing, presumed dead.


Monday, November 11, 1918:

The Division is moving today and so are we. I reported back to our HQ. this A.M. and found them packing up. The lieutenant said to stay so we didn’t follow troops, thank goodness. We left about noon for Clefmont on the main road between Neufchâteau and Langres about 35 km south of Neufchâteau.

While we were en route the news that the armistice had been signed and all firing had ceased at 11 A.M. today was received and the towns were wild all the way down. Everybody was smiling. It’s hard to realize. I haven’t grasped the idea yet. How joyous everyone is!

When we reached Clefmont we went down to the school house and helped the kids ring the bell. We are the only soldiers in the town so we have things pretty much our own way. Our Frenchmen are busy making a hit with the French people around here. Luyx, Hap, Johnnie, Frase, Eric, Titchmer, Schmittie, McGuire and myself ate in town this evening. We had chicken, french-fried, omelet, bread and raspberry jam and champagne to celebrate the armistice. A merry party.