Olive and Marnie are Herb's younger sisters, though I am still sorting through the nickname Marnie. I always knew her as Margaret.
From June 14th to July 15th, Herb is in Bussy le Chateau, Marne.
June 18th, (1918)
Dear Mother,
Everything is fine. We’re back on the line again – on active duty. I mean rather because this base is quite a ways back of the lines, even further than the place where we were first off – several months ago. The sector is very quiet. I hope it continues so because these sturing ? times are very hard on one’s nerves. We have very good barracks and are very comfortable, taking it all together. The weather’s been rather rainy lately – though not too rainy, and altogether I think the weather is cooler than it is at home.
I was much pleased to hear of Harry’s good luck in getting a good place and I do hope that he’ll be able to come through. I know he will if it can reasonably be expected of any one of his age and experience. The kid merely has backbone to go trailing down there there [sic] all on his own and I know he’ll do his darnedest. His only trouble is that he doesn’t say enough about himself. If he’d only loosen up and tell his troubles occasionally he’d be much better off. Tell him to be sure + keep in touch with Chas. I know that Chas will do everything he can for him, when he knows it’s the right thing to do, and I’m sure he can give Harry a lot of darned good advice if he’ll only go to him when he’s in trouble. Chas has been through the mill + and he knows what’s what. I hope Miss Pearsall can take him. I told you last week, did I now that I had had a letter from her.
I had Helen’s letter a few days ago. Tell her I’ll be writing her shortly.
How are the kids, Mother. I’ve been thinking a lot about them lately. Olive, I suppose, will be a young lady when I come back. And Marnie, how I wish I could see her and you all.
Several packages of magazines and things you sent have arrived this week and I’ve had a fine time catching up with current events in the U.S. the general tone of affairs looks better – more determined.
Don’t worry. I’ve never felt better in my life.
Your affectionate son,
Herb
On June 11th, the History Channel tells us this happened:
After several months of an aggressive German offensive on the Western Front during the spring and early summer of 1918, the Allies begin their counterattack, including an assault on June 10, 1918, by four French and two American divisions on German lines near the town of Antheuil-Portes in central France, some 45 miles from Paris.
Code-breaking by French intelligence at the beginning of June 1918 had allowed the Allies to prepare for a German attack in France that was to begin at midnight on June 7. The French launched their own massive artillery bombardment some ten minutes earlier, catching the Germans while they were still preparing for the attack. The Germans countered with an even stronger assault, firing 250,000 rounds of poison gas—including mustard, phosgene and diphenyl-chlorarsine—into the French trenches, incapacitating some 4,000 French soldiers and killing 32.
After three days of battle, the Germans had forced the French back to Antheuil-Portes. Winston Churchill, in Paris at the time coordinating Allied munitions, wrote to his wife on June 10 that "If the French cannot hold [the Germans] back on this sector, it is not easy to see what the next step on our part should be." The following day, four French and two American divisions launched a counterattack aided by significant air support as well as over 150 tanks. They successfully pushed the Germans back from Antheuil, taking more than a thousand German prisoners. A German attack west of Soissons on June 12 made negligible gains, and German Chief of Staff Erich Ludendorff called off the offensive that same day. The Allies continued their push, however, beginning a change of momentum that would gain force throughout the summer of 1918 and the final months of World War I.
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