30/7/16
Dear Everybody,
It is a beautiful Sunday summer afternoon & the jolly old plains are looking rather fine. When the heat of the day goes off, I am going for a ride across the towns with a Lieut. Vaughan who is going to have tea with some friends of his. He is a remarkable fellow having been an officer in the French army during the early months of the war. He was very badly wounded at a place called Veho, not often mentioned but a little spot on the Western front that has seen a good deal of fighting. He now wears the French V.C.
[Page 2]
& French Military Cross, which distinguished medal he won in the early cavalry operations of Aug. & Sept. 1914. His position was rather a remarkable one being really an Englishman but of French extraction he really was not eligible for the French army. However he was in France at the outbreak of war & joined up there. He is now one of the few men who has been able to secure a permanent commission in the British Regular army due entirely I think, on those reports he got from some of the leading French Generals. His general when in the French army was General Foch, the man who has been, & is, directing French operations in & around Verdun. Needless to say a
[Page 3]
recommendation from such a man must carry considerable weight. Unfortunately for Vaughan he was so badly wounded that he will never again be fit for active service, his spine was very badly injured, but he is quite able to carry on the work he is doing here, which is instructing in the mechanism & use of the new Hodgkiss Gun. It is rather a fine weapon, only weighs 26 1/2 lbs & is capable of firing 600 rounds per minute, is not meant for sustained fire but is just the gun for cavalry regiments. I, along with a number of other officers
[Page 4]
have just been doing a fortnights course, & went up for our exam yesterday. Am very pleased to be able to say that I got through a pretty good test with 84%. Next week we continue on with a course in range finding with a range finder that has just been invented, a very fine instrument too. Received an N.Z. mail 2 or 3 days ago, 2 from Rothie & one from Cowes Bay. It is grand getting ones mail up to time again. A few days before that I received an oblong tin of a number of different kinds of sweets and very acceptable too, & also a small
[Page 5]
packet containing a couple of handkerchiefs & a tin of “Ivelcon.” Fancy young Thompson having enlisted, what are you going to do for men at Rothie now, work will be at a standstill. In your letters I got the news of Charlie Thompsons death, it is pretty hard that after going so far he did not get an opportunity of putting a shot in for his country. Had a letter from Kate yesterday from Southampton. They were just arriving there after putting down a batch of.
[Page 6]
in Ireland. No mistake they are well in the thick of it now, & seem to be working pretty hard. Have not heard yet what the Maheno is going to do, but suppose she will be put on the same run. So far as I can hear there is no need for any of the Hospital ships to be standing idle now. From all fronts comes the very best of news. Despite the very fiercest resistance in and around Pozieres, the British attacks are having significant successes. You will have read in the papers that the Anzacs took a prominent part in the capture of that village. We have not heard that the N.Z. division
[Page 7]
was taking part in operations in that sector. In a raid on a front of 3000 yds at Armienters the N.Z. division was engaged and had considerable casualties, particularly amongst the officers. Since going to France 4 of our old O.M.R. officers who transferred to the infantry in Egypt, have gone under. Did I tell you in my last that Maj Jenkins who was here with me, had gone on to France & taken over the squdrn. Had a letter from him a few days ago & he is in tip-top form. He gave me the very excellent news that
[Page 8]
I was the next to go out to the squdrn, & went on to say that the time when I would be required might not be very long now. The men & three of the officers when he wrote, had gone up to the front line trenches & are fighting as infantry again. Now I do not want to see any other poor fellow knocked out to make room for me but I think it is high time that they gave me an opportunity to do something & the sooner it comes along the better I will be pleased. The O.M.R. squdrn is no longer divisional troops, but is attached to two other Aust. squdrns thus forming a regiment
[Page 9]
commanded by an Aust. Colonel. Our little friend, Col. Grigor, has had to take a back seat, & a very good thing it is too. The 13th reinf. arrived on Salisbury Plains a few days ago, & the 12th we hear, are to arrive in a few more, coming across France. They have been held up in Egypt for some considerable time owing to the presence of submarines in the Medit.
[Page 10]
Col Smyth, the officer commanding N.Z. training units in England was over here yesterday & he told me that they, the authorities in France, had wired him for 3000 reif. Needless to say he could not send them, for the very simple reason that he did not have the men to send. He will have plenty by the time the 12th arrive. According to your letters I gather that Charlie is coming with the 16th. I do hope he will get this far
[Page 11]
& will not be hung up in Egypt. I am expecting to be able to take a run up to London next week end. Was to have gone this, but the other officer here with me wanted to go & as it was his turn I had to stand down. Well now, I am off for this ride, so Cheer Oh & Au Rêvoir for the present. Kindest regards to everybody & do not forget Mr. Diack.
[Page 12]
Your,
Affect Brother,
E.S. McI.
