The following is a letter received by Geo. Packer from this friend W.J. Ashley in France and on the battle line. It gives a graphic account of is experience in battle and how he was hit:
Somewhere in France, Aug. 25, 1918
Dear George:
I just received your letter today and sure was glad to hear your you, and I’m proving it by answering it right away. I also got a big letter from the League with about twenty little ones in it, and really I felt so tickled over them that when I got thru reading them I found that supper had been over for about an hour, and if I hadn’t been on the good side of the cook II guess Id had to go hungry tonight. But then a letter is better than a meal anytime to us guys over here.
Did you get that card that I sent you the time I was wounded. A little Red Cross nurse wrote it for me, for I was about helpless at the time. they sure do a lot for us. I was hit in the leg the first time in an advance through a wheat field and a few minutes later two more hit me. Say, but we sure had those Boches on the run. I thought sure we were going clear through to Berlin, but then I guess we done pretty good at that. Don’t you think so?
I was bound to get even for some of the past, and you can just bet I made that old machine gun talk as long as I had the strength to hold it.
I wish that I could write anything that I wanted to, then perhaps I could get something wrote that would be worth reading. I just wrote Clare a letter so I am expecting to hear from him now most any day.
Well George I can’t think of anything else to say so I guess about the only thing to do is to say goodbye.
Billy