Letters from a Soldier

Section 3

November 3, 1918
My Dearest Mary,
I have had three letters from you since I wrote last so I must write again. Two of these letters came yesterday and one the day before. They were dated October 2, 6 and 9 and they were all dandy letters -- just the kind I like from the dearest of all little girls. I know you understand what letters like these mean to us for you are waiting and hoping as much as we. The only difference is we are away from our homes and in a strange country even if it is a nation that is doing all it can to make us feel at ease. We are different from the French and it surely is a wonderful feeling to have those letters to cheer us along. I will endeavor to write you as good a letter once in awhile. We fellows get so tied up with our duties here that I am afraid that my letters sound rather commonplace at times. But I know that my love for you has grown more strong every day. It seems at times that I can hardly control my longing to be with you again but I just say how much sweeter it will be to be with you when it is all over and I know that I stuck it out until the whole unpleasant business is finished. So until then my own dearest little girl, we will just be patient and trust in God to bring us together again never again to be parted.
We have been having some very pretty days here lately. Some that remind me of the fall days at home. The woods here have the wonderful colors of our own woods. There are more cedars and pines mixed in to give the colors a fine variation. A couple of days ago I took a ride of about fifteen kilometers and even if it was in the rear end of a big motor truck, I enjoyed it wonderfully, I could almost imagine I was in a big touring car out for a joy ride. The roads here are so good that it is like riding on a boulevard. I am certainly an advocate of good roads in the U.S.A. and I believe that there are a lot of fellows that will feel the same about it.
We had another concert here last night. We had three colored gentlemen of the U.S. Army as entertainers. Not the same ones as we had before, but very good musicians at that. The fellows around gather in and it is quite a lively crowd. The lady that owns this place came in today and from what I could get of her palaver, she is going to move it out soon. We are leaving here soon so I guess we have had our little fun with a real piano.
Well, the war is coming along fine about these times and I believe that things will have a far better aspect by the time you read this. "It can't be long now" is the favorite expression of one of the fellows in the office. Well, here's hoping. I will send you the last issue of the Stars and Stripes. There is nothing special in it but just its customary measure of vim and pep. It surely is a great paper and in great demand. The printing office can't get enough paper to fill nearly all the orders. We have a field man with us in the office now who is taking care of this Division's demand.
Quite a little while ago you asked me of the Salvation Army's work here. Well, they are doing a great work. In my opinion, second only to the Red Cross. Every fellow that I ever heard speak of it has the highest respect for that organization now. I know I have a much better opinion of them than I ever had before and when I get back to the U.S.A., I will never hesitate to help them along at any time.
Well, I must close and write a letter to Mother yet tonight, so I will say goodnight for this time. How I wish I could say goodnight the way we did not so long ago. So, bonsoir to the dearest best little girl in the U.S.A.
With sincerest truest love, Your own Lloyd

October 12, 1918
My Dearest Mary,
Well, I have not written for a long time now. Anyway it seems like a good while. We have been on the move again. Moved twice in just a few days and have been pretty busy these moving days.
I have not had any mail for quite a long time now but a new shipment is about due -- have been looking for it for several days but as yet it has not arrived.
Well, I guess the time that everyone has been looking for has come. Anyway it seems like it must be here from the action of the French. They are certainly a happy lot of people and they surely have the right to be. I have had just a little better than six months service here now and not anywhere nearly as hard a time as a lot of fellows have had and I know I am glad to know that I am alive and able to walk on two feet. So I can begin to realize what it must mean to a people who have been in it for more than four years.
I don't know and suppose no one does yet just what is the standing of the AEF from now on. I suppose we have another job on our hands now. At least until we know for certain that things are going as they should be. When we first came across I would have told anyone he was insane if he should have argued that the war would be over by the eleventh of November and indeed it was rather discouraging at that time. The English wouldn't listen to anything less than two years. We told them then that we did not intend to put in any two years at war. And I surely believe that America turned the tide in the right direction and hastened the ending about the two years the English talked of. Well, if something unforseen does not turn up, our fondest dreams will be realized before many months.
I can hardly realize that the bloomin thing is at last done and we can at least think of other things than war. I believe the Americans in general were that way for when they did learn officially that the armistice was on, they took it in a quiet "what do you know about that" sort of way. Well, one of these fine days we are coming back to good old U.S.A. and I am coming back to you. That will surely be the glorious day and we can look into the future and plan and plan and then carry out our fondest dreams.
We are now in a town that was not long ago occupied by the Germans and it is pretty well torn up in places. We have a very good place but it is cold as all outdoors. There isn't a window in the whole place. It was once a hotel or some similar place. There is a fireplace in every room and it surely is a good thing there is, too.
I have been looking over some of the trenches held by the Germans for three years or more and I can say they had them fixed for a prolonged stay. Deep dugouts of concrete and walled trenches and, well, everything they could have there. I can tell about it when I get back for there isn't the chance in the world of ever forgetting a single thing. Our money order man has been working all evening trying to get a pair of German wire cutters in working order. He picked them up in a dugout. He thinks he has some souvenir.
Well, I must close as it is getting late and also some cool. With deepest love to my own sweetheart. I will soon come sailing back to the only little girl in the world.
Lloyd