All rights reserved by Bonnie Lussman Quillen (granddaughter).

I and my brother Fred were drafted and inducted into the service July 26, 1918. Both our numbers came up at the same time. We wanted to get the oats shocked before we left. We called up one Catholic neighbor (most of our neighbors were Catholic) on the party line and asked if he could help. he said no but another man heard it and he came all hitched up. All the oats got shocked, we wouldn’t have gotten done on time with out him. We left Arcadia, Iowa at 6:00 PM by train for Camp Gordon, Ga. we were in training six weeks. Left Sept. 17, 1918 for Camp Merits. From there we walked to Hoboken and were ferried across the harbor. We walked up a plank to the ship “America”. We were 8,000, 4,000 whites and 4,000 blacks. During the trip the guns on top had been shooting submarines and I’m sure there weren’t enough life boats for that many men. Then flu broke out on the ship and a lot of men were lost. I was sick for three days. The doctor sent me to sick bay. I took the middle birth. Then came a colored man, he went in the birth above me, then another colored man came and took the birth below. I took my medicine. After a few days passed, the colored fellows could go. As one took his blankets to leave, all his pills rolled out on the steel deck. He was well, and I had to stay another day. We arrived in Brest, France nine days later. When we landed, there were no boat docks and were taken to shore on flat boats. They marched us to Napoleon’s Cavalry Barn. It was built in the 1700’s where his army stayed when going into Russia. That was headquarters. From there we marched out to the field. On account of the flu, we were maybe a sick looking bunch. The marines were stationed there and wanted us away from them, but three days later they had the flu. We were put up in pup tents. We worked in the supply of food and helped unload them. We were there about a week and spent time in the field and at the Barn. Then later we went to Le Mons, France to the next company, HC 110 Inf. 28 Division first by rail, a day and night, then by truck. We were the second platoon, fill ins to full strength. Of 36 men only 16 came back to camp from the front line. We got more training to carry a French Cho Cho Machine Gun carrying a clip of 16 shells. Then we moved into the line of battle Oct. 20, 1918. Everyone was after the man with the gun. Each man with the Cho Cho had five or six armed men with him for protection. We were under airplane shrapnel attack, saw a plane shot down 40 rods from where we were. I also got some mustard gas which made me sick for a few days. All the food and coffee was brought in at night. Food was scarce and some guys found and killed a chicken and they brought it back. But they didn’t know how to clean or cook it. I did so I got some. We cooked it in a gallon can over a fire outside. Another time we found some turnips left over in a field and ate them. We later found out the cook was a drinker and was trading food for liquor. They threw slices of bread in the trenches for the men to eat and one man’s bread dropped in the mud which was knee deep. He shaved as much mud off as he could and ate the bread . I had this one place that always scratched in my gray long handled underwear (issued to all of the service men along with their uniform) and one day I dug some type of sandburr out, it was woven right in. We called it a union suit because the tops and the bottoms were sewn together. The Australian wool varied in it’s gray color through out the whole piece of the underwear due to the darker wool around the face and the legs of. the animal. A wire was nailed to the trees so no one would get lost in the patch of woods. There was a machine gun nest (ours) and their gunmen were shelling it and we were covered with dirt. Once I and another soldier got orders to go on patrol to find gunmen that were there, we got lost. It was foggy and dark. Instead of going back to camp, we were going straight to the German’s camp but fortune was with us. We came up to a telephone pole which was a landmark, we then headed straight back to camp. There was an Italian in our platoon and when things got going rough, bullets flying etc., he would disappear. Then when things cooled off, there he would come back out of the woods. Three days before Nov. 11, 1918, there was a rumor that the war would soon be over. But we got orders to go over the top at 1040 o’clock on Nov. 11, 1918 to relieve the 109 Inf. We advanced position from trench to trench. Ahead was barbed wire fencing and mines every four feet that would explode with four lbs. of pressure. Another order came later that we were to fall back in the woods. Then the trench we where we were was shelled. After the war was over at 11 o‘clock Nov. 11, 1918, we had to stay on patrol, guard things and clean up. We stayed in the area about one week. Well it was cold and windy out. We were on a hill, so we dug a hole in the earth and put our pup tent over the hole. Well this fellow, Tantam the Italian said “Be dam if I pick.” As it was all little pebbles and rocks, we had to use a pick, and then shovel the rocks out, so we made the hole just large enough for the three fellows that dug. There wasn’t any room for him. We slept nice and warm. He rolled up his blanket and slept outside on the ground. He was all frost the next morning, so stiff, he could hardly walk. Well, we had this nice place made to sleep, they had to move us the next day, and another time after that, so we only used it once. I knew German and talked with the Germans, they were all gray haired and were glad the war was over. There were bands and singing. After the Armistice was signed there were rumors of more war. Then we marched three days, 17 kilometers a day towards Germany to meet them head on and they never came. After the war when we were in France, we were part of the military police and had to be on patrol in the town. That was Urea and Joss, France, a mining area (iron mines). We also guarded a bridge, and a pass was needed to cross. There weren’t any metal locks on the doors, the Germans had melted everything down for weapons. I had to guard a prisoner in a room without a locked door and no bars. I had a forty five on my hip. Well, I made out okay but the prisoner ran away from the next guy guarding him. We were in town a little over a month, January and part of February. While in France, we had stayed in a barn that was built on to the house, it was cold. We slept in the hayloft. Those buildings had clay roofs and were very airy. There was a stove up there and since it had snowed, instead of going out to get wood to burn, we found out the Frenchman had wood below us. So we cut a hole in the floor and let a little fellow in our company down and he tossed wood up. You should have heard the Frenchman rave when he found out we were using his wood. From there we moved gradually. They put us in box cars. By train, it took two days and one night to the place of deportation, St. Nazare, France. We first went on a little freighter, then a bigger ship and back to the United States. We walked directly on to the ship there. The hull was open from the top to the bottom for cargo loading. A canvas top covered it to keep the water out. 1,300 soldiers were on the return home, thirteen days. All got sick, one fellow didn’t eat a thing. They all lost 25 lbs. One man was walking on the boat with his mess kit of beans and the boat rocked and he had beans all over himself. We landed by the Statue of Liberty. Then up the Potomac six miles to Fort Dix where we cleaned up. Beings we were in the Pennsylvanian Division 28, as fill ins, we went by train to Pennsylvania to march past Independence Hall where the Liberty Bell is. We were reviewed by General Pershing and then returned to Fort Dix, from there by train to Ft. Des Moines and were discharged May 26, 1919.* A few of the men I remember are Carl E. Door, he was the same size I was (6ft). We were pretty good friends. He was a carpenter from Minnesota. And there was a man named Hoagland who was a copper miner from Utah. Our Corporal was from Pennsylvania. And there was a guy named Jennerjohn from Boise, Idaho.

*Per Veteran Affairs BIRLS this date was May 24, 1919.

Edward Lussman (1894)