July 9th 1918.

The day before we arrived
here a British Tommy had
his head shot off by a
Boche shell, & today an
American was shot in the
foot by a spy. I strolled
toward the front & passed
thru Rentliver, Belgium.
This town is completely
ruined. Not a single
building or house remains
whole. Our artillery is
all around us & when
the big fellows are fired
one is reminded of an
earthquake. The earth
just rocks. Overhead are
many Allied observation
balloons & each day Ger-
man artillery fires on
them. None have been
shot down so far but
many were forced to

July 12th 1918.

Today I had a close one. I
was on my way over to
Hdqr. to fix up a gas
alarm when suddenly a
big shell whizzed by my
head & bursted about 50
yards away. I dropped
flat in a puddle of mud
& water so was saved
from the flying bits of
steel. Fritz shelled us for
about 2 straight ours today
but no gas was put over.
Several men - killed in action,
were buried. Their bodies are
simply wrapped in burlap