Somewhere in France October 6, 1918
Dear Bess:
This is the first opportunity I have had to write you since the day I wrote from the woods before the big drive began. I am very sorry to have been so long but things have happened to me so rapidly I couldn't write. There was no chance to mail them if I could have. The great drive has taken place and I had a part in it, a very small one but nevertheless a part. The experience has been one that I can never forget, one that I don't want to go through again unless the Lord will but I'd never have missed for anything. The papers are in the street now saying that the Central Powers have asked for peace, and I was in the drive that did it! I shot out a German Battery, shot up his big observation post, and ruined another Battery when it was moving down the road. My excellent Second Lieutenant Zemer and myself were in the front of the infantry lines while I was doing it, and I saw tanks take towns and everything else that there is to see. I brought my Battery forward under fire and never lost a horse nor a man. Had shells fall on all sides and I am as sure as I am sitting here that the Lord was and is with me. I'm not yet dizzy although one or two men in the regiment are.
We are in billets now resting up and I suppose we'll go back in when they need us. I am as fat, healthy, and look as well as I ever did, so don't worry about me because there is no German shell with my name on it. I am glad Fred is going to the university as I believe it is a necessity to a man these days. I've had a university education and then some in the last year. Being a Battery commander is an education in itself. I don't know if I have made a successful one or not, but we've been in and out a couple of times together and I still have the Battery. There were a couple of men hurt this last time but they were not with me, they were on special detail with the ammunition train.
If this peace talk is true and we do get to come home soon, I can tell you a lot of things I can't write down. You will probably hear more than you wish.
Edgar Hinde has been sick with throat trouble. They sent him to a hospital for treatment and when he came out sent him to another regiment. I don't know where he is now.
I am very glad the 129th Aux did so well at the fair. Perhaps you can use the proceeds to give us a home coming. Would you meet me in N.Y. and go to the Little Church Around the Corner if I get sent home? We can then go east or west or any old direction you wish for a tour. I have an idea if peace comes that it will be six months before we can get home. I got three letters from you today and I surely did appreciate them. I got three also while I was right up under the German guns and I tell you it sure bolstered up my nerve. We were on the most famous battlefield of the war, in front of the town the Germans couldn't take, and were against the Kaiser's pick but they ran just the same. I hope the censor don't see that.
Write often and I'll write just as often as I can.
Yours always Harry
Harry S Truman Capt Bty D 129 FA American EF