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a. Note:   Served with A.E.F. World War 1. Cpl, Company B., 355Inf., 3rd Division Cooper Family Bible Info from John W. Cooper (nephew) Discharge Record American Y.M.C.A. On Active Service With The American Expeditionary Force. Dear Home folks: I am well and not even wounded so i feel very lucky. I have received Several letters from you since I wrote you the last time which was the 14th of July. Since then I have been so busy dodging shrapnel and bullets that there was not time to write. I didn't get anything to eat for four days but a little sugar I had in my pack. Thing have been pretty hot where we have been. We have only one officer in our Company and ninety men. The others are wounded and are in the hospital. We did not have so very many killed. we've been relieved and are back for a rest. The boys can make fun of me if they want to, but I missed a Dutchman not over 75 yards, but he was running and I had a damn bayonet on my rifle, but I hit one a quarter of a mile away alright. I hit two but don't know if I made good Dutchmen out of them or not. I'm one of the worst men in the compant to try to get the Dutch. One day I got up in the loft of a house and shot out thrum the roof at them. None of the fellows would stay with me for fear a shell would hit us, finally I got down but I hated to fot I was enjoying myself just fine. Fourteen other fellows in our company and I captured a machine gun one day. We had four men wounded but we killed two of the Dutch. Another fellow and I dragged one of our men up over a hill and the machine guns were shooting at us all the time but they didn't his us. We were so nearly all in we can't care much tho what happened. We had not eaten anything for three days then. One of the fellows got his picture taken when he turned the gun into the Colonel but he didn't do any more then I did. Was he that I went back with and got it under machine gun fire, but I wasn't there when the gun was turned in so I was out of luck. the Sargeant that was with us said he hoped he lived to get back to the company so he could hear me tell about capturing that gun. It is the only one our company captured. We were fools or we wouldn't have done some of the things we did. We were chasing the other three that were left after we had killed those two, we were running and guess that is why I missed that one not over 75 yards. Only six of us got that far and we run into a trench full of them. One of the fellows said "come on" but I said "wait till I load my gun" and when I had it loaded and looked up I saw the trench, it was in a wheat field not over 40 yards from us, a German was just taking fine aim at me but I shot first, don't know if i killed him or not but he surely went down so then we stopped and shot at some that were running down a road. The ones in the trench could not see us when we laid down but we didn't stay over 10 minutes for they opened on us with a machine gun and hit one of the fellows., it was he that we dragged back. You have heard me say a lot of times that I wished I had a million dollars but I've seen places where I would not stay 10 minutes for that if I could have gotten out. I could talk for a week if I could see you. We had 250 men two weeks ago, have only ninety-one now. If Helen expects me to get her a Dutchman, she will have to look after my things pretty good for they are hard to get. Every other one has a machine gun and they shoot 250 times a minute so think of me with my poor little rifle that only holds five shells, however if they don't get me they want to look out. Tell Melvin he can read the letters I write you, paper is very hard to get over here in places. I hope we had a good crop. I would like to see ray but I can't find our where he is, you can't tell where you are located. I had a letter from Hazel today. Write often and don't expect to hear from me very often. I will write when I can but that may not be very often. I think VanDyke and I are the only Chase County fellows that have been on the front yet. Banks and that bunch are sorting clothes and doing MP away back from the front. They are surely lucky. Well, there is a lot more I could write but I don't know if it would go and some of this may not. I have had quite a lot of experience that will be alright if I get to tell about it. Hope the boys will never have to go thru what I am. If I am very lucky I may get back. We surely drove the Dutch back on this front. Hope the war will be over before winter but I doubt it. If I am lucky enough to come out of this was alive I will settle down for life. I am writing by the light of a candle in an old barn on my tin box. We had a hog for dinner one day, it cost $130.00 and weighed less than 300 lbs, 297 in fact. You can hear the thunder plain every day whether there are any clouds or not. I guess Oscar would soon wish he was where he is, he has not the least idea what it is like and I surely hope he never will. There was a big shell hit in about five feet of me but I didn't get hurt, only threw dirt and stuff on top of me. I wasn't scared of the bullets like I thought I might be. Dead German smells worse than dead horses. I picked some strawberries, wild ones, but they are very small and I didn't have any cream for them. Airplanes are a thick over here as Meadowlarks are there. They shoot more ammunition; here in a week than you would think ever was made. There is lots of good wheat over here that will not be cut, it is too close to the lines. The Germans can shell it whenever they want to. We didn't have much of a celebration the 4th, we went to sleep whenever we could. The boys ought to have a gas mask to keep the gnats off them, they could harvest fine then. I would rather do anything I have ever done than wear one. Tell Helen that what she wrote about Tressler would suit me fine if we could only get him over here. Tell Tony Wheeler he will not be quite so blood thirsty when he gets up where the shells are falling. The ones that talk the biggest are the ones that get scared the worst. 11-3-18 I passed in 20 feet of Ray the other day but did not get to see him but some of the other boys did, he is all right. 11-2-18 If I ever get home I am going to take a good rest and eat lots of hot biscuits and honey. I haven't had any since I've been in the army. I think the Germans are about finished now, it rains all the time here. If you don't hear from me very often don't worry, I guess they'll let you know if I get bumped off. Private John W. Cooper Co. C. 4th U.S. Inf. Third Div. American E.F. VIA N.Y.


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