Letters From the Front

Dated: April 12, 1916

Well, we have been having a pretty hot time lately, as I expect you've seen in the papers. Swan (another signaller) and I were up in the front line on the 6th instant when Fritz made a very heavy and determined counter-attack, and we must have been surrounded with horseshoes to have escaped O.K. We were both hit several times by splinters, but only got little cuts and bruises. At 3 a.m. (6th), Fritz began his bombardment prior to the attack on his lost trenches, and, of course, all our communica­tion was cut off in the front line before five minutes, so we had to rely on rockets as a means of communication with the Brigade. He kept up a heavy shelling of the front line supports, barbed wire and communication trenches until 5 a.m., when they left their parapet and charged the craters. Our infantry opened up rapid fire immediately and also machine-guns. We put up the S.O.S. signal and then grabbed our revolvers and made for the parapet and blazed at every Fritz in sight. They were in close formation, and were bearing over to the left for the craters. (There were thousands of them packed close, and you couldn't wish for a better target.) Of course, as soon as the brigade saw the S.O.S., every gun in the vicinity opened up with rapid fire, and it was a sight to be remembered to see the veritable hail of shrapnel and heavy shells pouring into Fritz's lines. Of course, we weren't left alone in that line either, and our front line was a miniature hell!! That's the only word for it. I think what saved us was the fact that Fritz was using more percussion high explosive shells than shrapnel. Two lit fair in front of us on the parapet and buried us with sandbags and earth. I couldn't hear decently for two days with concussion. It's funny to diagnose one's feelings during a fight. You forget everything except what's going on at the time; you don't feel any fear at all. Of course, there is a certain amount of reaction on the nerves, after it's all over, but that soon passes off. All we wanted was to come to close grips with them, and give them what's coming to them, and it's the dickens to know that you've got to sit tight and take it. Well, they never got farther than a small part of the second crater, and they were driven out of that two days later, and we now hold all we took originally and then some. That bombardment kept up all that day, but not so concentrated or severe. We were relieved at 12 o'clock, and managed to get out all right. Of course, we had heavy casualties, but they weren't one-fiftieth of Fritz's. We (the battery) went out for a rest, four days later, down south, but were only there two days when we were recalled and took up this position, about a mile further along than our old one and covering the craters. We (the B.C. party) have a house to ourselves for a billet, and have it furnished and fitted up like a house. (I won't mention how we got most of the furniture!) We moved in two hours after the civilians moved out. They moved out because it got too hot for them in this vicinity.

Our battery was commended for promptness in responding to the infantry's call, and for excellent shooting. That's the third time we have been commended.