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^[[24  24]]    February 18, 1974.

Dear Alice:

Early in WW1 the Germans drove a wedge between the two French fortresses of Verdun and Toul.  Both places are on the river Meuse, which at Toul is flowing westward.  After 12 or 15 miles it makes a right-angle bend to th4 north, at a town called St. Mihiel.  The Germans reached St. Mihiel, and the wedge of territory they had captured was called St. Mihiel salient.  They held it until September 1918, after trying vainly to widen it in 1916 by their bloody assualts on Verdun.

During its first six weeks at the front the 88th squadron operated on the south face of the St. Mihiel salient.  Our airfield at Ourches was also on the river, between Toul and St. Mihiel.  In those days of early summer the sector was as quiet as the one in Champagne had been during mu stay there with the French.  We suffered no casualties.  The German chasse hardly bothered us at all.  They made passes at two of our plodding old sopwiths, but 1 left only a few innoucuous bullet holes.  They did not seem to be trying very hard for a kill.  I was absent at Cazaux for more than half of that period.  On my return I recall flying over our beat, where the Germans sat on high ground and looked down at the Americans and French.  I could not have had more than three or four missions, and do not remember any special adventures.

More vividly I remember Toul.  It was the first walled town I had seen from the air.  The wall was almost a perfect circle, with four gates.  Seen from close by, on the ground, it turned out to be rather an embankment, 15 or 20 feet high.  It was so thick that a road runs along the top.  I assumed then that it had been built in modern times, but I have read since that it dates from the 17th century.  The real modern defenses of Toul were in innocent-looking hills that rose separately from the plain outside the town.  I was told that inside each hill there were elevator shafts, living quarters, and tunnels leading to gun emplacements at the surface, all cut from the solid rock.  All was so camouflaged that you could see nothing warlike from the air.

Meanwhile the first drafted men from Tennessee had reached France in the 82nd division.  It moved into line north of Toul, just