We came out of the trenches again this morning and stayed in reserve until 6 a.m. We had a lovely time in the trenches this time as we were in reserve and had nothing to do except a little fatigue and carry rations up to the trenches at night. We finished at 2 every morning and then had the rest of the day off with the exception of two days when we had a few hours' fatigue. You talk about heat - England isn't in it! We found a lovely little pool and had a swim every day. We are having another "Rest" which means we go out at 7.30 and come in at 6 next morning.
How rotten of Mrs Huggins not to have heard from Jack, I do hope he is all right. They are farther north than us, they were handy so were rushed up. Had we not been settled to our part of the line we should have had to go. The 1st Warwicks were called up from "Rest" and have lost over 700. We relieved them in our trenches; also the Dublin Fusiliers were here before us. We have got quite a number of Kitchener's Army out here - mostly Scotch and Irish Regiments. Their artillery is just behind us and from what I have heard and seen it is very fine.
I see Italy has started this time; the war will not last long now. I have hopes of being home for August.
What a terrible affair they had at Carlisle, some poor chaps made a bad start on their journey to the front. I heard about it this morning - 3 days later - so we are fairly kept up to date with news.
We received the parcels all right; we don't get them delivered in the trenches (not parcels), so try and arrange for them to come when we are out. We shall go in again on Friday and come out on Monday. I hope you have had a decent holiday. I enjoyed Whit Monday although it was the cheapest Whit Monday I've ever spent as there was no opportunity to spend.
We have not been in that heavy fighting you read about, but are in an advanced part of the line and we are making it jolly well impossible for the Germans to break through our line. We are prepared for their gasses. 40 men died yesterday on their way to hospital so I hear, from their effects, so they must be using them again. I only hope we are in the trenches when they try an attack, if they ever do we can get them over our parapet into a stream and we would fairly give them something to remember us by as they come down the hill. We have been making wire entanglements for the last few days and putting them out.
By the way I want you to send in my next parcel a new razor, Thompson will be able to get me a decent one. I want one badly and have been reduced to borrowing Billie's. Also I want a new towel. Will you send them by return? I must close now. You might send some more stuff to make drinks with we simply cannot drink this water without it. The doctor put chloride of lime in it and it makes it taste awful. We've had all the paper &c this morning.
Love to all John
No comments:
Post a Comment