Personal Letters of a Driver at the Front

June 20, 1915 (excerpts)

After dinner three of us went for a little walk along the Moselle. One can see the Germans about a thousand metres away on the hills, and as you walk along the banks of the river they can see you distinctly, but they don't bother to fire, which is kind of them! We sat down and watched two soldiers fishing, and I took a photo of them, as I thought it so amusing for people to fish under the direct and easy rifle shot of the Boches. We then went and talked to a lot of soldiers about to return to the trenches. They are all nice to us, and it would make an American proud if he could see how the American boys here are respected and loved. One officer was very indignant because those "dirty Boches" had. actually thrown five shells into his trench yesterday! As he wandered off muttering, "I will show them! les cochons --- les cochons --- cochons," rather sleepily, I thought --- I could n't help remembering the Dormouse in "Alice in Wonderland." It appeared that at the particular line of trenches where he was they had agreed only to fire at each other with rifles! In several places here the trenches are only fifteen or twenty metres apart and the French and Germans are on quite good terms. They exchange tobacco for wine and paper for cigarettes and then return and shoot at each other quite merrily. About Christmas or February, I am told, by soldiers who were then here, they used to walk into each other's trenches and exchange stories, etc., but now they have become "méchant."

From:  With the American Field Ambulance in France:  Personal Letters of a Driver at the Front (1916)