25th September 1916

Announcement Date: 25/09/1916

“We are pretty close up here only 5 miles behind the line.  We can easily hear the rattle of the rifles & machine guns, & at times the noise of the guns is beyond description.  Just before lunch today there was a great straff going on, it was just like one big long unending roll of thunder.  Poor old Fritz was getting it pretty hot”

“The other day Lieut Herbert & I went for a ride to a little town, which is only a mile behind the line, & well within range of enemy guns, & as we rode out we passed over some old enemy trenches, perhaps some of the first that were built at the beginning of the war.  It was great to ride into the town, there were these wonderful French people working away the same as if there wasn’t a war on.”

Ernie McIntyre – Letter 79 – France
Read full letter here.

Image
Unknown photographer (1918) Meal time in a front line trench within 250 yards of the enemy. Auckland War Memorial Museum – Tamaki Paenga Hira. PH-ALB-419-H468

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