Letters From the Front

Dated:

France, September 14, 1918

Dear Mother, I've written a few letters and will mail the bunch today. Lately our mail has been slow going out owing to a shortage of envelopes. Rain has been falling nearly every day since the beginning of the month, and, living in the open, caused all our envelopes to come together, so, despite plenty of paper, we couldn't mail letters.

I was down for a bath yesterday, the first hot one since July 28. I was glad to get the change of underwear as I was getting too lousy to be comfortable. The baths are rigged up in an old house and the NCO in charge said they were handling 210 men an hour.

Coming back I stopped of the horse lines and got a couple of parcels, one of which was from you. I'm saving the box of chocolates, as I expect to go to the lines for you few days, and Art Brown has an unusually sweet tooth.

Last night one of our sergeants, “Punch” Broadbent, who, in former days, was one of the stars of the professional hockey world, left to go to Blighty to train for a commission. It was rather a sad time to go, as word had come in a few hours earlier, that his brother had died of wounds. Luck certainly runs in strange ways. Punch has three years service in France and has never been hit, while his brother has only been in one real show.

The news coming over the wire continues to be encouraging. The Germans are very uneasy and our about ready to do anything. I think the sudden change in the initiation on this front, and the conclusive proof that the U-boats have lost out, has had an effect on the German people, that will only increase in the winter months. I think the end is in view, and although it may be months off, there is no doubt as to the universal feeling that the war is about over. Your son,

Watson