1916
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18th June "We have had a busy day of it - have fired hundreds of rounds and are feeling a bit knocked up now. The noise was something frightful and my ears are tingling
now from the effects. We were going hard for over three hours. These stunts don't come too often otherwise I'm afraid our ears would have a hard time. As it was we had to put cotton wool in them to keep them from bleeding." |
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19th June "Sometimes I wake up at night and think I can hear your voice but then the awful truth comes when I look around and find myself in either a
gun-pit or a barn - the disappointment is terrible." |
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20th June "Guns are booming all around us and the noise is terrific. A huge gun is just below us, giving Fritz some
hurry-up. The stench of dead bodies is very pronounced and one has to smoke to drown the odour." |
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30th October "Have had no rations for the past two days - not even bully beef or biscuits, and no water. It's a case of water, water
everywhere and not a scrap to drink, for all around us is dirty
yellow% clay water. Now and again when our thirst gets really bad we tackle this muddy water but it's dreadful, even when boiled."
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| 1917 |
11th January "Last night our gun was on duty and we were all sitting round a small fire when a chap came to the pit, asked for the officers and said their division was relieving us in the morning. Just imagine the smile that came over our faces on hearing this welcome news. We have been in action for
11 weeks."
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26th January "We ran into a blizzard - our faces were blue with cold. I could not feel my nose or ears - they were absolutely frozen. I don't know what I would have done without that balaclava helmet you gave me when I first went into the camp at Seymour. One of our chaps, who has a big flowing moustache, had icicles on it and did look so comical. For lunch we had frozen bread, which was hard as nails and bully with lumps of ice in it. Everything was frozen - even the grease in the axles of the wheels.
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27th January "I filled my water bottle before we moved, but within half an hour, it was solid ice This is the most severe winter in France since 1903."
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1918
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29th March "Eleven succumbed from the effects of gas poisoning and fourteen others have been sent away in a very dangerous condition Lost many of my best pals by
this last strafe of Fritz. He used a totally new gas - prussic acid, cyanide of
potassium. The poor fellows that got the stuff suffered terrible agony and turned
blue from the effect. It eats their lungs away and makes it impossible to breathe."
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21st April "Last night we were in action from 9 pm to 6 am this morning without a break and we were all tired out for none of us has had a wink of sleep since 6 am yesterday, which is over 41 hours ago." |
