Hanging in Epinal

February 23, 1919

Darling Mother,

Since I last wrote you I have had two letters from home – those of January 26 and February 2. There’s literally nothing new around here. The weather has been quite rainy for some time and threatens to continue that way. We’re still stationed in Epinal and I expect that we are to be here for some time.

The list of Sectors to start for home up to the end of March has been given out but SSU 580 doesn’t appear on it. At any rate I’m thankful that we’re in a city instead of some two by four village where nothing ever happens except morning noon and night. Here at least there are always moving pictures and sometimes regular shows.

I’ve been wondering how Harry made out with Barrows. I do hope he gets a chance at it because I think it’s an excellent opportunity. Barrows is a pretty big man in that game.

I’ve thought several times about that proposition of moving to N.Y. as Chas suggests and if Harry comes through I think it would be a good idea. But there’s plenty of time for that later.

I hope Dad gets that extra money he’s hoping for. It certainly must be needed in these days of the H. C. of L.

You have probably seen in the papers that a new system of leaves has been inaugurated in the A.E.F. I’m pretty near due for my next leave, but don’t think I’ll take a long one. However I do expect to take one of the three days leaves in Paris. Of course I was there for a day on my other leave but one can’t see much in a day and it’s a shame to have been in France over a year without knowing Paris a little. And of course Paris wasn’t really Paris at the time because it was all dark at night because of the air raids. I don’t believe I told you that there was a raid the night I was there about 3 a.m., one of the last of the war. I woke up out of a sound sleep and was half scared to death for about five minutes till I got my bearings. Of course air raids were no new experience to me because from July 15 to August 15 they were bombing within two miles of our camp every single night and sometimes several times a night but I wasn’t expecting anything like that in Paris. That was the night of September 16th I think.

This time, if I do get to Paris, I shall trot around to Mr. Rankin’s friend with my letter of introduction that is now over eighteen months old. It may still be good.

Your loving son,
Herbert

Looking at the History Channel for what was happening on September 16th 1918 I found this about September 16, 1916, to end in September 1918:

On September 16, 1916, one month after succeeding Erich von Falkenhayn as chief of the German army’s general staff during World War I, General Paul von Hindenburg orders the construction of a heavily fortified zone running several miles behind the active front between the north coast of France and Verdun, near the border between France and Belgium.

This “semi-permanent” defense line, as Hindenburg called it, would be the last line of German defense; its aim was to brutally crush any Allied breakthrough on the Western Front in France before it could reach the Belgian or German frontier. The British referred to it as the Hindenburg Line, for its mastermind; it was known to the Germans as the Siegfried Line.

After waging exhausting and bloody battles against the Allies at Verdun and the Somme, and with the U.S edging ever closer to entering the war, Germany’s leaders looked to improve their defensive positions on the Western Front. In February 1917, the German army began a well-organized withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, a move calculated to give a period of respite before the Allies could begin their attacks again. The withdrawal reduced the length of the line the Germans had to defend by 25 miles, freeing up 13 army divisions to serve as reserve troops. On their way, German forces systematically destroyed the land they passed through, burning farmhouses, poisoning wells, mining abandoned buildings and demolishing roads.

After the withdrawal, which was completed May 5, 1917, the Hindenburg Line, considered impregnable by many on both sides of the conflict, became the German army’s stronghold. Allied troops would not breach it until the last days of September 1918, barely one month before the armistice.