The Trenches, Belgium
My dear Sisters M & B.
I think I must try & reward you for the
excellent supply of letters you have sent me. All home letters are oh so
welcome I can’t think how one would do without them. As for news no doubt some
of it will be stale but here goes.
Sunday was an eventful day as no doubt you know a
great effort was being made down south & the IV who were in the trenches
had orders to make demonstration. Soon after dawn our artillery opened fire
& bombarded their trenches pretty hot, for and hour or so. The IV Glos also
opened heavy fire, & then our machine guns fired 25,000 rounds at them
& down the roads behind them. The demonstration sounded very effective,
& the Germans thought we were going to attack. They got the funk &
started shelling the village behind our line very heavily.
We were having a church parade about 300yds in
front of the said village. It was a funny service I can tell you as our
artillery had a battery within 100 yds of us. Only in the lulls could you hear
anything. In the afternoon I went down to see the damage. It was awful -
oh if only people at home could see the village they would sit up. One side of
the street was burning still but was practically gutted. Three civilians &
a baby were killed & one soldier & one wounded. Thank God we are spared
this in England. They say the panic among the women was heart rending & no
wonder, poor things! They were running hither & thither, & the
wonder is so few were killed. They sent in about 50 shells in an hour & the
artillery say they were 9 inch Howitzers. I think I realised the awfulness of
was as I stood in that street & saw that picture of utter desolation of all
the material parts of what once was home – a place no doubt like Stoke to these
poor people. The church was badly damaged too. The people however recovered
pretty quickly & there was a touch of humour as well as pathos in the sight
of an old woman hard at work with a broom, clearing the road & path, of the
wreckage of her own home.
The IV Batt were in for six days, & as the time
was fairly lively, I hear they had over 30 casualties.
We came in on Tuesday night & were soon hard at
work. In fact we are up to our eyes in work in this part of the trench. The
Germans were most suspiciously quiet all day. I took a patrol out last night
but could not hear a sound. This morning however they sprang a surprise on us.
I had just turned in but soon awoke to hear the whiz of shells & the booms
of bursting shrapnel whilst their infantry beat a tattoo on our parapet in
great style. This entertainment went on for about an hour. The bombardment was
really quite heavy & we thought we were going to be attacked but they
suddenly switched off, & when they had finished we began. Our artillery
gave them some nasty pills & we gave some hot rapid fire. We had some
marvellous escapes, but all the shells just seemed to miss – one or two only by
a couple of yards. Two actually hit in our company line but fortunately they
knocked the parapet down where no one was stationed. I had two men scratched
with splinters but that was all.
There is heavy firing down south. I hope things are
still going well.
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