Letters From the Front

Dated: May 3, 1915

We have been having a few days' rest, and it was very welcome after our labors lately.  I saw Jamie McKimmie yesterday.  He had seven wounds on him when he was home in the fall.  We have had all kinds of luck in our actions, only 2 men killed so far, but we have had two men die of sickness and a few wounded.  I think we have the lowest casualty list of any of the Canadian battalions so far, only we never know how things are to turn out any time. 

I have had a few very exciting days out here dodging shells and bullets.  It is certainly a great game and you have to be very careful how you go around.  You get all kinds of confidence going about as you see farmers working in the fields right up behind our lines, and it gives the contrast of peace and war in one look, sometimes shells dropping in the very field a man is ploughing.  But go to any town and see the change.  Everything is in ruins and there is desolation on all hands.  Our good weather has broken up now; we have had a few days of miserable wet weather, and it still looks like keeping on.  I wish it had kept dry as the trenches were drying up very well, and would have been all right by now only for the rain.

We have slept in some very funny spots since I left Toronto, but very seldom on a bed; in fact I don't like a bed now and can't get to sleep for hours when we happen to land one.  We have been in hospitals, schools, houses, barns, lofts and cellars, and even in holes dug in the ground with a roof built over them.