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March 7, 1974

Dear Wansa ^[[&]] Co.:

On the morning of July 20, 1918, I was ordered to make a reconnaissance flight over Hill 193. that afternoon. The allied push was continuing, but the 167th French division was still stuck at the foot of that hill. Divisions on the left and right had moved forward, so that the German position was now exposed to allied fire from both flanks. They could not hope to hold the hill much longer. I was to look particularly for signs that they were moving out.

Later that same morning an order came assigning our squadron, the 88th, to duty with a newly created American Third Corps. The First Observation Squadron was to take over our current duties with the 167^[[th]] French divison. The orders became effective at noon that day, which meant that an observer from the First squadron would be named to take over my mission of the afternoon. The man who got the assignment came to see me about it. He turned out to be an old fiend from training days at Tours and Amanty. His name was Hermann St. John Boldt.

I had a battlemap of the hill and its surroundings, neatly pasted on my folding plywood map board. Boldt had not had time to prepare one so I lent him mine. I gave him also some notes I had made about the German positions. On that mission Boldt was shot through the head by a bullet from the ground. His pilot brought his body home. I retrieved my bespattered map board.

No one can ever know how I would have fared if I had made that flight. The cards would not have been shuffled for me in exactly the same order as they had been for him. All one can say is that I was spared from taking the risk. I had not asked to be excused. Yet I could not help feeling some involvement in Boldt's death. I had liked him, and had been sorry when we were assigned to different squadrons from Amanty.

Boldt's parents had been immibrants from Bermany. I don't suppose they came over as steerage passenbers, for his father became manager of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Boldt always carried in an inside pocket a letter his father had written to an uncle still in Germany. The letter was meant for delivery in case Boldt should be taken prisoner. He said the uncle was "an admiral in the Boche navy". The rest of us usually referred to the enemy as German, but to Boldt it was always "Boche". I suppose he  used that word to show where his loyalty

Transcription Notes:
quite a few typos in the original.