Two Spokane brothers, Lyman and Edwin J. Buzard, were both injured in the same battle in France.

Edwin, 19, was stricken with poison gas and, a few days later, Lyman, 18, was struck by shrapnel in the foot.

Both were recovering in a hospital behind the battle lines. A third Buzard brother, Alfred, was in the U.S. Navy.

In a different battle, another Spokane soldier, Pvt. Byron Barrett, also was injured.

“Well, mother, Fritzie got me at last, but not bad,” he wrote home. “I am in a base hospital and the chances are that I will be out of here before the roaches.”

However, Barrett did impart a somber piece of bad news.

“You remember my pal ‘Mose’ (Leon) Clausner? He did not get a chance to come to the hospital. He got his at the same time I did. Call his sister … I don’t remember her first name, but it is Miss Clausner. Poor Mose died a few minutes after he was hit.”

From the military aviation beat: The Inland Northwest was providing perhaps the most crucial item for winning the war: spruce.

It was vital for building American warplanes. An expert said it was not only light and strong, but had one other key quality.

“When a bullet strikes it at 147 miles per hour, it passes through it as if it were a piece of cheese, without shattering in the least.”