Nice story in the papers recently about an American Expeditionary Force (AEF) artillery sergeant who buried a letter in a beer bottle in Lorraine in 1918, presumably to keep it safe. It was from his "Aunt Pete" in Oklahoma.
She had concerns, expressed with Southern directness, about how the enlistment of African Americans was making it very difficult to get staff and urged her nephew to write next time on one side of the paper only, "for your letter was all cut up - you see where they cut out what they didn't want poor me to know, they cut out the other side too". The French archaeologists who dug it up were actually looking for Merovingians but they are keen to trace descendants of Sergeant Morres V Liepmann of D Battery 130th Field Artillery and his Aunt Pete. If any of you are reading this, contact mahaut.tyrrell@inrap.fr !
We thought this would be a great chance to give away some signed copies of one of our Battle Orders books on the American Expeditionary Force. We have five signed copies to give away - and all you need to do is send the answer to the following question here.
Q: Who was chosen to command the American Expeditionary Force in World War I?
(ps. For those of you who have been reading my weekly posts on Salamis, don't worry - next Monday you can read the next installment!)
*Competition ends 28 March