Thanksgiving Over There

Westover, John G., Collection from the State Historical Society of Missouri

 

Owen "Glen" Tudor, a St. Louis native, sent this four page letter on Thanksgiving Day, 1918, to his brother Ed. The letter was sent from a rest home in France, where Glen was recuperating after time in the trenches. The letter describes American involvement in the war. See a transcription of the letter below.

France 

11/28/1918

Dear Ed,

I am ashamed to say that I received your letter some time ago and have not answered-however anyone in the army has an excuse for not writing. You are kept busy doing the little things and then have no [con…?].

Perhaps Bee has written you some of the stuff I have written home. We were first in the Vosges – then in the St. Mihiel drive – the Argonne & the battle of the [W…?] plains.  Of course you have heard what we did to the Dutch. We sure made them like it. There is no doubt that the Americans were the deciding factor in the war. Our Division has been praised repeatedly and cited by the Americans and the French high ups. We knocked them dead in the Argonne which the Stars and Stripes holds up as a bigger undertaking than Chateau-Thierry. It was the “Argonne Woods” when we started but it was the “Argonne telephone poles” when the American artillery got them with it. There wasn’t a limb or a leaf on any of the trees.

We are glad of course that it is all over – and now we have the hardest part – waiting to come home.

Today is Thanksgiving Day. The world has a lot to be thankful for. We all feel that we have even though we do have to eat the old army dinner. We may be eating and more dinner at home however. That is what we all hope for.

The Armistice was signed at 5 o clock the morning of Nov. 11 and fighting ceased at 11 o clock. It was precisely 11 – they kept on fighting up to the last second. One big gun near us fired one over to Fritz at about 10:58 by my time. It landed on about 11:02 of course little things like that couldn’t be helped.
Fritz got one of our own observation  balloons behind our
positions the morning (about noon)  of Nov. 10^th.



An American division attacked the Germans on the night the 158^th artillery supporting on the morning of the 9^th. This shows that there was action up to the last. Well, so long old scout and good luck. Will tell you more.

Your bro,

  

Glen

 

Tudor enlisted in the Missouri National Guard in June 1917 (see his soldier record here).   He trained at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma in the 128^th Field Artillery.  The regiment was assigned to the 35th Division and sent to France.  He served overseas from March 1918 to April 1919. Tudor's letters  are unique because they escaped censorship, so some are filled with vivid descriptions of combat. To see the rest of the collection, visit the State Historical Society of Missouri.