Trenches
28.5.16
Dear Mother
I have just received your letter inquiring about Mrs Cunningham’s watch No but I am sorry I can do nothing with it now so you will just have to tell her that you can’t get the No. I burnt all the books that I thought I could do without so that you have no way of getting it. If I were home I might possibly be able to get it from the Agent, but anything you could do in that direction would be too uncertain for her to go on. It is a bit of hard luck if she has lost it as it was a rather decent little watch.
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Since writing last we have come back from the trenches for a spell & are now in billets again. We get a good deal of fatigue work – chiefly trench digging – while we are “resting”, & there are times when we feel that we are being badly treated but taking it all round we have a good time – far ahead of Gallipoli. Here we are never more than a mile or two from a town where we can buy what we require & we are never more likely to be in the trenches for more than two weeks on end so that we can always carry a few extras to keep us going. The rations issued in the trench are the same as here Bread butter cheese & jam, about enough
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for two meals a day, with a slice of bacon for b’fast & stew for tea. Very often the jam butter & cheese fail to put in an appearance & nearly always they are short but there are always plenty of biscuits to fall back on. One of the liveliest fatigues we strike here is pushing trollies up a light line from the stores to the trenches. Stray bullets are whistling past nearly all the time & as sure as a pretty hot place is reached the trolly jumps the line & has to be partly unloaded & lifted back again. Of course it is done at night but the flares sent up from the trenches make it just like day. I have been up with three different parties now but
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have had no misfortunes. I had expected to have a lot to say about our first turn in the trenches but we seem to have come at it so gradually that there was nothing very startling about it. Through the day things are very quiet but towards evening it gets pretty lively, the artillery usually gets to work & drops a dozen or two shells along the trenches & then the rifles & machine guns start & keep up an almost continuous clatter all night. Just before b’fast a few more shells come over & then it is quiet pretty well all day. With ordinary care we are quite safe from bullets & shrapnel but the shells give our little bivvies a rough time. The bivvies open
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into the trenches or saps & are dug down about 2 feet & then built up with sandbags. They are only made to hold 3 or 4 men, & if a high explosive, or an unexploded shrapnel hits it goes right through. The most exciting time we have is sitting in the bivvies while there is a bit of a bombardment on, & wondering where the next shell is going to land. Of course we hear the beggars come screaming through the air as if they are coming straight at us & it is a bit of a relief to hear them go over-head. The last evening we were in they gave us a bit of a straffing & got our Sgt Major (Andy Willocks). At first they reckoned it was just a bad bruise on the back but
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I heard it was worse than they thought; however he is doing well now & I think any reason for anxiety has gone. So far we have had very few casualties in the 14th Tom Bigwood of Mataura is the only one I know of from the Gore district. He got a scalp wound, through his steel helmet, from a piece of a bursting shell. The helmet just saved him. They have fixed up a big bath room here for us & when we came out of the trenches they took us all down for a hot bath. There 6 or 8 tubs about 10 ft across & 4 ft deep & we got into them, about a doz. in each tub & had a great old splash.
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They also take in dirty under-clothing & give it out clean in exchange. After a little hesitation I gave in a lovely big new shirt for a much lighter one but consoled myself by thinking that I had got rid of what appeared to be a never ending swarm of vermin, but before I was home I felt that there was something wrong & a search revealed the fact that my clean shirt was almost as dirty as the one I had given in, & very much livelier. At least half of those I spoke to complained of the same thing, the catches ranging from 2 or 3 upwards. The bath is alright but the change of clothing is “no bon”.
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June 5th It is a week since I started this letter so I suppose it is time it was in the bag. I am also sending papers with a/c of the big naval fight. You will probably get most of the news as soon as we do but the papers will be of interest later on. Jim Hargest has arrived here & is attached to our Battalion. I don’t think there is any more news.
Love to all
Len
Received another envelope of clippings from the you this week also a box of chocolate from Averil. Andy W still doing well.
