Primary Source: Letter Home 1917
This letter home is from a soldier on the Western front in 1917. Here he describes the conditions of trench warfare and trench life.
This letter home is from a soldier on the Western front in 1917. Here he describes the conditions of trench warfare and trench life.
Jan 5th 1917
My Dear Mother,
Yrs. of Dec 27th & several enclosures to hand 3 days ago. I am glad you sent me poor Mowbrays card, I always think his death particularly sad, as he was on a pleasure round of the trenches & need never have gone at all. I suppose you will not go to Foxcote. Curious all the frost you have had & snow, here mild for time of year & cloudy, some rain & everlasting wind. I sincerely hope it will not freeze, so hard on the poor men in trenches standing in mud & water up to their waists, it would mean so many frozen feet; there was a lot of it first winter we were out. I was moved again new years day to take place of 2 other men here at hospital who the head Dr. objected to & said he would not have them in the Mess ( we all mess with Drs. here) so Commandant asked me to come down & make peace & they left & went up to the wrecked Chateau & I believe inhabit my cellar. I did not want to move but of course am much better off here, a hospital of wooden huts. We have little cubicles in a hut, made by hanging blankets on wires & at least we are on the surface tho’ in a sea of mud! This place is only 4 kil. from where I was. Cellar before used to get damp & water leaked through & down steps after heavy rain. We are all off again very soon I hear, expected to be here 6 weeks. Shan’t regret it, but very glad to have seen it & the utter desolation of everything about the front.
My new years eve night & new years morning I spent in a dugout lying on a stretcher on floor with a wounded man on one over me, rats playing about all over, shells bursting all round & shaking the place, so it was not much to boast of; sort of shelling out the old year & in the new. Next morning 2 burst close to entrance & threw mud & stuff into the dugout just where we were sitting round the fire or stove rather. Following morning at about same hour one burst & knocked in all the entrance & one of our fellows was hit on head by debris, but none the worse much! It only left a little hole for them to get out through. Another morning a shell burst just across the road, hit car in several places & blew Dr., volunteer & 2 or 3 others standing at entrance right into the dugout down the steps. No harm beyond a shock.
Certainly as a section we have been lucky. At various times we sat in our cars waiting instead of going underground, now of course we go to ground till car fills up & we have to go, at least more or less so. Don’t know where we move to next, latest rumour takes us a long way from these parts, further than where we came from. It is a nuisance being always on the move, so much better when they left us to work a certain front from a base without this continually being on the tramp. We get lots of day & night work here. Broke spring of my car, awful roads, it was mended again last evg. So am going again, only lost 24 hrs. I gave my shover an Xmas present of ½ doz pair woollen sox I got from ????????, he much appreciated it, very decent fellow. These huts are only single boards so we hang blankets about to keep out draught, especially round our bunks. We sit down about 18 to meals, about 6 of us & 12 French medical staff, we pay 5f a head a day, it simplifies cooking, as our cook is up at other place. Chauffeurs cook for themselves. We are very short of volunteers & have been for some time, only 12 or so, supposed to be 20. Some who left us coming back end of month I believe. Have to send 2 chauffeurs on a car.
…
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
Discussion questions:
What would you do if you were in this situation?
How do you think you would feel/react if you were a soldier facing real battle for the first time?
Why do you think that the army took care to censor soldiers' letters?
My Dear Mother,
Yrs. of Dec 27th & several enclosures to hand 3 days ago. I am glad you sent me poor Mowbrays card, I always think his death particularly sad, as he was on a pleasure round of the trenches & need never have gone at all. I suppose you will not go to Foxcote. Curious all the frost you have had & snow, here mild for time of year & cloudy, some rain & everlasting wind. I sincerely hope it will not freeze, so hard on the poor men in trenches standing in mud & water up to their waists, it would mean so many frozen feet; there was a lot of it first winter we were out. I was moved again new years day to take place of 2 other men here at hospital who the head Dr. objected to & said he would not have them in the Mess ( we all mess with Drs. here) so Commandant asked me to come down & make peace & they left & went up to the wrecked Chateau & I believe inhabit my cellar. I did not want to move but of course am much better off here, a hospital of wooden huts. We have little cubicles in a hut, made by hanging blankets on wires & at least we are on the surface tho’ in a sea of mud! This place is only 4 kil. from where I was. Cellar before used to get damp & water leaked through & down steps after heavy rain. We are all off again very soon I hear, expected to be here 6 weeks. Shan’t regret it, but very glad to have seen it & the utter desolation of everything about the front.
My new years eve night & new years morning I spent in a dugout lying on a stretcher on floor with a wounded man on one over me, rats playing about all over, shells bursting all round & shaking the place, so it was not much to boast of; sort of shelling out the old year & in the new. Next morning 2 burst close to entrance & threw mud & stuff into the dugout just where we were sitting round the fire or stove rather. Following morning at about same hour one burst & knocked in all the entrance & one of our fellows was hit on head by debris, but none the worse much! It only left a little hole for them to get out through. Another morning a shell burst just across the road, hit car in several places & blew Dr., volunteer & 2 or 3 others standing at entrance right into the dugout down the steps. No harm beyond a shock.
Certainly as a section we have been lucky. At various times we sat in our cars waiting instead of going underground, now of course we go to ground till car fills up & we have to go, at least more or less so. Don’t know where we move to next, latest rumour takes us a long way from these parts, further than where we came from. It is a nuisance being always on the move, so much better when they left us to work a certain front from a base without this continually being on the tramp. We get lots of day & night work here. Broke spring of my car, awful roads, it was mended again last evg. So am going again, only lost 24 hrs. I gave my shover an Xmas present of ½ doz pair woollen sox I got from ????????, he much appreciated it, very decent fellow. These huts are only single boards so we hang blankets about to keep out draught, especially round our bunks. We sit down about 18 to meals, about 6 of us & 12 French medical staff, we pay 5f a head a day, it simplifies cooking, as our cook is up at other place. Chauffeurs cook for themselves. We are very short of volunteers & have been for some time, only 12 or so, supposed to be 20. Some who left us coming back end of month I believe. Have to send 2 chauffeurs on a car.
…
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
Discussion questions:
What would you do if you were in this situation?
How do you think you would feel/react if you were a soldier facing real battle for the first time?
Why do you think that the army took care to censor soldiers' letters?
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