I’ve shared this before but thought it was appropriate to share on Veterans Day.

My grandfather, Bert Bourne, wrote many letters home from Great Britan, France, Belgium and Germany during World War I. I have few posestions greater than his letters, nearly all of which begin with, “Dear Folks at Home.”

I thought it appropriate to share this one, which describes — from a soldier’s point of view — they day the Great War ended, a day then known as Armistice Day and later celebrated as Veterans Day.

“Dear Folks at Home

“Stenay, France, Nov. 22, 1918: We certainly celebrated Hallowe’en and raised a little h—- with the Kaiser.

“For several days previous, the Hun aviators had been flying over our lines and dropping propaganda saying ‘Come on over Americans we will treat you fine’ and the like. Well we come alright. But not the way they meant and we kept right on until they hollered enough.

“On the day of the armistice we had packed up about 2:00 in the morning, marched all the rest of the night, crossed the Meuse and the Canal on pontoon bridges and about 9:00 fell out for a rest along the road.

“Pretty soon a car came along and one of the men in it called out ‘The war is finished at 11:00 o’clock boys.’

“Well, we didn’t know whether to believe it or not as the guns were still pounding away but we felt a little encouraged.

“Well, we (stayed) there for a few hours and presently the time drew close to 11:00. For some time it seemed as though the artillery fire had been slacking up and at 11:00 it stopped entirely and not a sound could be heard.”

“We began to think there was something to it then and late in the afternoon we moved on to our present location where we have been getting fed up again, new clothing, etc.

“This town is the best one that I have been in over here, that is it was the best one at one time. I imagine but of course has been under the Germans for several years now and there are not many people here but more are coming back every day. There are some fine buildings and good streets for this country.

“It looks both comical and pathetic to see some of the civilians coming back to their homes. Usually you will see them with a wheelbarrow or a baby carriage with their choice possessions loaded onto it. They usually have a sewing machine, feather bed and some quilts and kettles as part of their load. They are certainly happy tho.

“Well I guess the scrapping part is all over now but what the future is is hard to tell. One sure thing tho is that we are coming home sometime. Of course we have rumors (also roomers) (get that?) but we don’t put much faith in them yet. I think I will be there in time to help harvest your wheat crop tho without any doubt. I don’t believe I am in much of a hurry to come home anyway till you get thru having the flu.

“I believe you asked what my work consisted of. Well most of the time I have been just following the rest of the bunch and carrying my pack. Part of the time I was on a projector detail. They use a projector or flashlight to transmit messages, using the Morse Code of dots and dashes.

”Then on our last drive I was on the fireworks detail and had quite a load of rockets to carry. They are used when other means of communications fail and you want to send a message to the rear. There are several different kinds of rockets and each one has some special meaning. We in the Signal Platoon are apt to be called on for a good many different kinds of work whatever the occasions require.

”Well perhaps the next time I write it may be from Belgium or Berlin or some other seaport town, one never can tell but I guess I had better quit for this time. Take care of yourself and watch out for the flu.

“Write again when you have time.

“From your friend

“Bert”