Took Seven Germans (Gaudreault)

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Below is a letter received by Arthur Gaudreault from his brother Fred who is with the American Expeditionary Forces, somewhere in France:

Sept. 26, 1918.

Dear Brother:

I got your letter a few days ago and it reminded me that I hadn’t written you for a long time. Paper is very scarce around here at present but I found one sheet, so will just drop you a few lines.

We went "over the top" a few days ago and got back all safe and sound. You probably read in the papers how we had them on the run. The papers were about right when they said that the Dutch threw their guns away and waited to be taken prisoners, because I took seven of them myself and didn’t fire a shot. Some hero!! I picked up a few little souvenirs but couldn’t carry much because we were carrying our machine guns and trying to keep up with the infantry, and believe me we had about all we could carry. I could have picked up a car load of guns, bayonets and helmets, because the Dutch left in a hurry and didn’t take all their belongings. Helmets were so common that no one would pick them up unless it was an officer’s spiked helmet.

Nevertheless, I saw a lot of interesting things on my way across no man’s land and the German trenches, and I will have a line of stories when I get back, good enough that I can sit out on the porch and swap with Barney whole days at a time.

Your brother,

Fred