Treasure trove of letters offers glimpse of WWI

Harold Bill Allen of New Philadelphia treasures the letters that his father, Harry, wrote home to his family from Europe during World War I.

The letters were discovered recently by Harold Allens sister, Virginia Duve of Cadiz, packed away in a closet since their mothers death.

The letters, written nearly a century ago, have a generally upbeat tone.

We are well and arrived over in France all OK and like it here fine, Harry wrote to his sister, Ora, on June 24, 1918, after his unit, Battery F of the 314th Field Artillery, arrived in France.

But they tell only half the story of a veteran whose first wife died in the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 and of a man who suffered serious health problems for the rest of his life from the effects of being gassed during the war.

Harry P. Allen grew up in Wick, W.Va., a tiny community in Tyler County, close to the Ohio River. He married Cena White on Oct. 11, 1913, and was drafted into the Army in 1917.

He entered the military with his brother, Bryson, and the two served together throughout most of the war. They were really close brothers, Harold Allen said.

The Allens went through basic training at Camp Lee, near Petersburg, Va., and shipped out to France aboard the SS America in late May 1918.

On July 29, Harry Allen wrote his sister again, telling her, I have heard the roar of big guns at front and seen the flash at night from the front, but that is as close as have been.

Later, on Aug. 18, he told his mother, Viola Gorrell, that he and Bryson still were together, though his brother had been away for awhile and had seen most of France. We have been on a long march for some few days past. I rode horseback all the way. This is a beautiful place over here.

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Treasure trove of letters offers glimpse of WWI

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March 5, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: World War I |

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