War Letters, World War I

Ochse, Corp. Edward J.

My Dear Friend___

I received your letter of the 28^th Oct. last nite with three more from home folks

To start with I am going to tell you about my trip over and what I have been doing since I've been over here. First I left the U.S. on the evening of the 4^th of June on the Mauritania, the third largest transport in the world and the fastest. The sea was not very rough so not so many of us boys were sick. We were not fed good while in it. We landed in Liverpool England 11^th of June. We got on trains, each coach has 5 or 6 apartments, each holding about a squad. We went to Ramsey in Camp Woodly where we stayed a week then to South Hampton, got on boat "Huntsman" crossed the English Channel, landed at La Havre stayed there over nite, then on train to Sommedom, France which was a 4 day ride on train and 21 mile hike. Here we stayed for a week, then on trains and back to my Co. at Raon-en-Bois, stayed here for 4 days then on trucks to [xxx] Alsace where we spent our 4^th of July. Then on the 7^th we went for the trench for the first time. That was fun for us. Then we stayed in them for a couple weeks then back to some town which was Courmont where we stayed for a couple weeks and where we got out first pay out of the states. I got three months that time. From here we went to La Bresse stayed there for a couple weeks. Then to the trenches for the second time for a couple weeks. This was more fun for all we had to do was to shoot rats, cats, birds, etc. and throw grenades at nite to keep awake. He we went to Gardiner then to a couple other small towns thru Nancy backed the Mets drive then we went into the last and big drive where a number of the boys were killed and wounded. We went in with 189 came out with 89 only two left from my squad. We were in this drive for seven days from Sept 25 to Oct 1 then back to Remiremont and then near Verdun and only 12 miles from Mets. We went onto the lines again one man was killed and 4 wounded in air raid the Germans pulled off. When they did this we were only two miles out in no man land and nothing between us. Now we are at Courseulles and are ready to go to embarkation any day heard we were going to sail the 12^th of next month. So we'll be in the States by Xmas.

I am sending you a picture of myself while in the Hospital in Doniphon so you see how sick I was. send you a better one when I get back in the States and have more printed.

The last few days we have been policing up the war rubbish cleaning up the country for the French people.

Your friend

Corp Edward J. Ochse

Kansas War Letters Online

• "Bleeding Kansas"
• Civil War
• Indian Campaigns
• Spanish American War
• World War II
• Korean War
• Vietnam Conflict
• Gulf War
• Photo Gallery

For more information concerning Kansas history and the resources at the Kansas Historical Society, contact the Library Reference Desk, 785-272-8681. ext. 117. People interested in donating letters, memoirs, manuscripts, or photographs should contact Nancy Sherbert, 785-272-8681, ext. 303. People interested in donating museum objects should contact Blair Tarr, ext. 427.

© Kansas Historical Society, 2001- Fair use standards apply to individuals' use of this material. Requests for commercial use should be directed to the Director of the Library & Archives Division.