May 24, 1918 – Full diary entry:

“On K.P. today. I got enough to eat.

Got a letter from Dad.”

As if getting bad food wasn’t enough – imagine being so hungry that you sign up to work so you can get more of it. And courtesy of artist Tim Godden, here’s Robert:

Chaplain Edwards, in From Doniphan to Verdun: The Official History of the 140th Infantry, had this to say:

British rations were issued to us. There were enough of them but they were not those things for which the American stomach yearned. The British have a weakness for tea and jam where the American calls for coffee and “ham and.” The most bitter objections heard were offered to the British lime juice which was furnished as a ration. To travel five thousand miles and then be offered lime juice as a beverage seemed a hardship to some of the men.

Our first mail reached us on May the 24th, a happy day in the regiment. It was our first mail from home, and came just a month after we left Camp Mills. The letters were read, and then re-read to be sure that nothing had been missed, and the whole regiment showed a better spirit.

Where was Robert today? See the timeline.