Return to the Land

So we hiked down to our train of a very different design from Uncle Sam’s trains. Old Lord George’s trains amused the boys very much indeed. The little engine had a copper jacket around it. The drivers very high; the coaches were cut up into compartments with room for eight of Uncle Sam’s boys in each. Also spokes on the car wheels and we boys would oft times say if the spokes flew out someone would get hurt. But Old George’s trains must have been built for speed for we ran entirely across England in about 36 hours passing fields of yellow wheat, barley and oats, and even the sides of the railroads were growing some kind of vegetables and from all appearances it was as fertile a country as I had ever seen. I was from the States but one could very readily see that the landlords and the very wealthy people of England owned and controlled the vegetation of England. Getting off at Ramsey, England we hiked about three miles out to a rest camp by the name of Camp Woodley. Here we rested for two days after visiting Lord Ashley’s estate, once a colonel in the English army, but had retired to live the rest of his days on his estate. So early the following morning we hiked to Southampton, England where we boarded the transport Yale, an American boat and crew, across the English channel one of the most dangerous submarine zones in the war. Thus, taking us all night to cross the English Channel and everybody was expecting to be submarined at any minute. Early the next morning we were plowing into Le Havre Harbor where we unloaded and hiked to another rest camp on the top of a very high hill just as the sun was setting. Very tired, thirsty, and hungry to camp no. 2. We boys had drunk all of the water that we had in our canteens by the time we had climbed to the top of the high hill. So very unfortunate, we were about to perish in the hot searing sun and the camp had been raided the previous night by a German airplane – and dropped a few gas shells and poison so we were not permitted to drink any water at this camp until the next morning. I would have drunk anything I could have gotten but nothing less than two miles and a half. So the following night after such a hard hike about 12 o’clock some bombing planes came over and raided the camp so the signal was given by firing a few big guns so the soldiers could creep into the trenches - so I was so tired and hungry that I just lay in my tent with my head and body was inside and the remainder on the outside due to the fact that we only had eleven boys where there should not have been but five - fortunately we were not injured in the least bit. But Le Havre was bombarded that night very heavy 2½ miles away, the next day after noon we hiked about four miles to the station in Le Havre from where we boarded the French train in route to Cammissoy, France where we trained for three weeks of hard formations, drills of modern warfare with scarcely anything at all to eat. The first seven days our company did not have a bite of bread to eat - substitute and soup - thus the boys spoke of company mutiny but the captain was a good man and would advise the boys that it was the wrong thing to do. That we surely would be getting plenty of supplies very soon had to drill from morning until night. (Captain James B. Basbee is from Wagner, S.C.) He kept

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