Letters from the Boys by Carrie A Meyer

Author:Carrie A Meyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

HAHN REFLECTS ON SOLDIERS AND LIFE AT THE FRONT

When Requartte Hahn wrote to his father at about the same time, he told several interesting stories that illustrated curiosities he had been pondering.

The Piano at the Front

The soldier is a funny person. Although his experiences have tended toward making him act a person years older when he had things to do, still he is as easily amused as a baby. You will hear him singing old school songs, playing school-boy pranks on his comrades, making little wooden windmills to fasten on the pup-tent pole. He seems at a loss to find something to do when no work of a serious nature is at hand.

As an instance, while on the Soissons front, a bunch of men were in reserve a couple of miles back from the front lines, well within range of the enemies’ guns. The men, having nothing else to do, went down to a demolished town and came back with a piano in pretty good condition. They set it up under a tree and bustling around found a good player and right there I saw a scene that was not duplicated, I believe, in the field. While the gang was congregated around accompanying the player, the guns of our batteries and those of the Germans were beating like drums, interspersed now and then by the hum of aeroplanes and the far off rattle of our anti-aircraft guns.

The Germans, by way of appreciation, dropped the largest bomb that night that has ever been our experiences to hear. We thought the world had come to an end for a few seconds. It sure was a great finale and right there ended the musical program. Thereafter I was among those that took out a membership in the card club, and we confined our amusements to playing cards in a dugout. The dugout, by the way, was not boom proof, but you know it looks like protection. As a matter of fact, it would have made a fine tomb. At any rate, the Boche could not see our lighted cigarettes.

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