The following is a transcript of a newspaper article that appeared in the Okmulgee Daily Times.
Young Soldier Describes American Success in Eliminating St. Milhiel Salient and on the Meuse River on the Verdun Front.
Writing from base hospital No. 30, at Royat, France, where he is recovering from wounds received in the battle of the Meuse, Harold Everett, Company B, 315th military police American expeditionary forces, interestingly describes to his father, J.H. Everett of the McIntire Furniture company, two major American offensives, the one which wiped out the St. Mihiel salient and the other which resulted in the glorious victory of the Meuse, shattering the whole German defensive system in France and making Germany's surrender inevitable. Mr. Everett, who is a well known Okmulgee young man, did a hero's part in both drives, and fell wounded at the Meuse. He was formerly employed by the Atlas Supply company at Muskogee and enlisted in that city in April. He trained at Camp Travis and went to France with the gallant 90th division composed of Oklahoma and Texas men.
His brother, Lester Everett, formerly a well known Okmulgee printer and employed on The Democrat, is a member of Company I, 43rd regiment at Camp Lo??, Houston, Texas. He expects to be home soon.
The letter from Harold Everett follows:
Dear Dad - This is my opportunity of complying with the spirit of the day as well as to show my gratitude to you for the number of letters which you have written to me with mother's and that still remain unanswered.
The lid is to be taken off the censorship and we are allowed to tell many things which I have considered most interesting but have had to refrain from telling because of the censorship. The first front which we were sent to was at the battle of St. Mihiel, and I was with my unit near Pont A. Mousson, France. Pont A. Mousson was before the war, a city of about 65,000 population and at the time of the drive did not contain a single civilian, being only about a kilometer from the front line trenches and having been there for about four years. The Germans, I am told, were in this city only for a few hours before being driven out, but very seldom a day passed without shells being thrown into it. After the drive I was stationed in and around Pont A. Mousson for a few days and had an opportunity of seeing some of the beautiful homes and buildings of which many still contained furnishings and personal property, such as pianos and large mirrors, etc. This town is on the Moselle river, and has many beautiful gardens and shrubbery. They raise almost any kind of fruits and also many kinds of nuts.
The place where our unit went over the top for the first time there was a place called Fey-en-Haye, which used to be a town, but having been unlucky enough to be in that place commonly called "No Man's Land," it was nothing but rocks, not a wall standing higher than four feet, the rocks from the former buildings being used at the time of the drive, as in many other cases, by the engineers to make roads to take the big guns and supplies over to the advancing troops. Just to the right of this village was some woods, or had been, as they were nothing now but stumps having been shot into and through so much that all the limbs and many of the trees were completely torn away, also the shrubbery was badly damaged by numerous gas attacks. In going over the top one has to face not a barb wire fence, but a regular mass of barb wire, which is generally pretty well shot up by the artillery before going over, but in this case, as in others, we went through one mass and came to a patch of woods, where there were still more masses of barb wire and after going through these we all looked more like a tramp than a soldier as our clothes were almost completely torn of us and besides that we were all muddy, as we slept in shell holes, trenches, and dugouts and had to "flop" occasionally to dodge a shell.
For the drive we were transferred to the Verdun front, near the Meuse river. The conditions here were much the same, but he Germans seemed to think more of this ground and put up a much stronger resistance. Every town we took was almost completely razed to the ground. The day that I was wounded, the 8th, I was doing M.P. duty at Montagney, near the Meuse, and our division had not yet crossed the river, as they were this day hauling pontoons to make bridges with for the troops to cross on. The Germans were shelling this town about every day and that morning were putting a regular barrage over and most every one had gone to a dugout at the time, a driver having stopped his team right were I was and left the wagon with one of the boats on it and went to a dugout too. When I came too I was able to walk and started for an aid station. The horses and boat were completely blown to pieces. I was hauled for many miles in an ambulance and later put on a train and don't know which direction I went, or what part of France I am in, but I am at Base Hospital No. 30, at Royta, France, and it certainly is a beautiful place, and is used at other times for a summer resort, but now all of the big hotels, etc. are used by the Red Cross. My wounds were only flesh wounds and are about healed up already.
The M.P.'s whom I was with at the time are known by a blue brassed with red letters worn on the left arm and they also wear a piece of red cloth on each side of the collar fright under each of the armaments, about an inch by two inches. I do not suppose that I will every go back to the old organization again now, but the papers state that all of the casualties will be sent home first. Would sure like to be home for Christmas, but as it is impossible, suppose the next best thing is to write you a good letter. Don't suppose that I can receive one in return, though, as mail is a long time being transferred and there would be no use giving my address here, as I will probably not be here long. The papers lead me to hope that Lester may get to be home by Christmas and he can read this letter with you then you might let Ethel read it, too.
With best love to all and hopes for an early meeting, I am, your loving son - Harold U. Everett.