LETTERS FROM THE FRONT IN FLANDERS
' Friday, March 26, 1915
' I arrived here yesterday about 5 p.m., and found the Battalion resting from the trenches. We all return there on Sunday evening.
' I got a splendid reception from my friends here, and they have managed to get me into an excellent Company, all the officers of which are my friends. This place is very muddy, but better than it was, I understand. We are in tents.
' I am now permanently attached to C Company and am devoutly thankful. Captain T. is in command and the subalterns are Laws, Fletcher, and Thomas, all old friends of mine. F. was the man whose room I shared at Edinburgh... . Thank you very much for your letter wondering where I am. "Very pressing are the Germans," a buried city.'
[This, of course, privately signified to the family that he was at Ypres.]
' April 1, 1915, 1.15 p.m.
'We dug trenches by night on Monday and Wednesday, and although we were only about 300 to 500 yards from the enemy we had a most peaceful time, only a very few stray bullets whistling over from time to tune.'
' Thursday, April 8, 1915
' Here I am back again in "Rest Billets", for six days' rest. When I set off for the six days' duty I was ardently looking forward to this moment, but there is not much difference; here we "pig" it pretty comfortably in a house, and there we "pig" it almost as comfortably in a "dug-out". There we are exposed to rifle fire, nearly all unaimed, and here we are exposed to shell fire aimed, but from about five miles away.
' I am awfully grateful for all the things that have been sent, and are being sent... I will attach a list of wants at the end of this letter. I am very insatiable (that's not quite the word I wanted), but I am going on the principle that you and the rest of the family are only waiting to gratify my every whim! So, if I think of a thing I ask for it...'
[To a Brother]
' Billets, Tuesday, April 13, 1915
' We are all right here except for the shells. When I arrived I found every one suffering from nerves and unwilling to talk about shells at all. And now I understand why. The other day a shrapnel burst near our billet and a piece of the case caught one of our servants (Mr. Laws's) on the leg and hand. He lost the fingers of his right hand, and I have been trying to forget the mess it made of his right leg ever since. He will have had it amputated by now.
' They make you feel awfully shaky, and when one comes over it is surprising the pace at which every one gets down into any ditch or hole near.
' One large shell landed right on the field where the men were playing football on Sunday evening. They all fell flat, and all, I am thankful to say, escaped injury, though a few were within a yard or so of the hole. The other subalterns of the Company and I were (mirabile dictu) in church at the time.
' I wonder if you can get hold of some morphia tablets [for wounded men]. I think injection is too complicated, but I understand there are tablets that can merely be placed in the mouth to relieve pain. They might prove very useful in the trenches, because if a man is hit in the morning he will usually have to wait till dark to be removed.
' My revolver has arrived this morning.
' After being relieved in the trenches on Wednesday, and marching back and having a meal with the other officers of C Company in the Reserve Billets (a brewery), it was one o'clock before I got to bed in our little house. And we had to "stand to arms" in the morning for an hour while dawn was breaking (we always do, and at dusk, too). So after this I went to sleep till 2 p.m.
