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1918 but in large part rebuilt by 1939.
     When the 32nd had gone, the front of the Third Corps was the south bank of the Vesle.  On the left we had the 77th division, made up originally of drafted men from New York State.  On the right we had the 28th division, Pennsylvania National Guard.  Near the middle of our sector, but just inside the zone of the 28th, was the town of Fismes, normally with 3 or 4 thousand inhabitants.  It was patly destroyed when we got there, totally destroyed before we left.  I recall a tall, round brick smokestack that stood seemingly undamaged after everything around it was rubble.  In 1938 we found at Fismes a nice new bridge, bearing an inscription which stated that it had been built by the state of Pennsylvania in memory of its men of the 29th.

     My recollection of those last days of July is patchy.  They were enlivened by a raid of night bombers on our airfield.  I mentioned that in an earlier letter.  I can recall only two flights that I made, though there must have been more.  One was the first time I ever flew with Littauer.  We were on an early morning reconnaissance, and the fog near the ground was thicker than it had been on the morning of the allied attack of the 18th.  Flying low, we came over a clear spot, an open field, and saw about a platoon of Germans crossing it.  That was the second and last time I ever saw German soldiers on the ground.  Littauer dived on them, firing his one gun.  They scattered, and as we passed over them I had to pick out individuals to shoot at.  On another day a dozen or so British fighters, Sopwith Camels, made a rendezvous at our field with a group of American fighters of the Dirst Pursuit.  We took advantage of that company to send over a photographic mission.  There were three of our planes, and I was in one of them flying protection for the man with the camera.  It was the largest party of allied planes I ever flew with, and the only mission on which I ever had a fighter escort.  We encountered the heaviest anti-aircraft fire I had ever seen, and our plane had a direct hit from a shell which passed through a wing without exploding.
     Then on July 30th I left for a three-day leave in Paris.  When I returned I found that the squadron was about to move.
                                                Love,
                                                Dad