Pte E Cresswell No 22271

2^nd Coy 12^th Labour Batt Devon B.E.F.

France.

Thursday July 13^th 1916

Dear Sister & Brother

            Just a few lines hoping you are in the best of health as it leaves me at present I received your letter but  I am sorry over Mother Allowance I filled a form in when I was at Fort Bowder Nr Plymouth wishing to leave sixpence per day out of my pay and when we left there we had a pay book given us and its entered in to that that I shall only receive sixpence per day so there is some thing wrong some where then you say about Wigston when I was there they asked me about making any Allowance but was led to understand that I could not make one but cannot say about signing any form I think some one else must have signed that so I don’t know how you will go on but I hope to the Lord you will get it, it seems funny entering it in my pay book for me to only receive sixpence per day then not get so you will have to do your best wich I know you will I am alright up to now it was a bit warm were we was yesterday we don’t go out all together I have been going on at three o’clock in a morning till ten then there is another lot goes on we are putting a water main in we have seen one or two battles in the air and I have seen two machines brought down one dropped not many yards from us if you was here at night you would think they was going to blow the place up with the guns bursting away, thunder is nothink in it I hope you will remember me to Mrs & Mr Beckworth tell them I am in the pink I wrote to John but he has not answered it yet.  So this will be all this time from your Loving Brother XX

                        Keep smiling.

No envelope with this letter

Thursday

July 13^th 1916

My Dear Harry,

            I have just received your letter dated the 9^th and have been laughing ever since – I really never thought you were so dull before, and am afraid I will have to leave the explanation of the joke until some future date.

            It is very good of you to write me every Sunday and my rule is to reply to you as soon as I receive yours, but even then it is as you say impossible for letters to be passing evenly.  As you will notice your letter only took four days to reach me so it is improving.  My letters must take longer, as altho’ I am writing this on the 13^th it will not leave the Battery until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.  I wrote you about a week and hope you have received it.

            I was very surprised to hear Lord Rhondda had bought our concern, and at first was a little bit anxious about the effect it would have on me, but now I don’t care much what happens as after all it is quite a small matter.  When I enlisted W Davis & Sons made certain promises and under the special circumstances, sale or not should not affect them.

            As you say it is hardly worth while sending papers out here as they are so old by the time they arrive.  Mother sends out a Cardiff weekly paper which gives some idea of what is happening.  Your news of the Western Front appeals to me very much for a special reason.

            We have been getting a lot more sleep recently, altho we are still very busy, but everything is working much more smoothly than when we came here first.  I am very glad to say that the deafness is leaving me now, altho’ there is still a ringing or buzzing noise continually in my head.  I am getting a lot more accustomed to the guns but even now if on the gun floor when the gun fires, and I have not my fingers to the ears, for a second it gives a most intense pain.

            I recently had an opportunity of examining a German dugout and it was a wonderful stronghold.  The roof was level with the ground and consisted of about 5 feet of concrete with girders interlaced; the sides were also of concrete and immensely thick, whilst the door consisted of steel.  It had however been fairly well done in by our guns & the steel doors were torn from their hinges and cut & ripped as though they were tin.  It certainly gives the impression that nothing is shellproof.  From the appearance of the interior (which when I saw it was in a very battered state) it must have been a very comfortable place, as there was a tier of bunks (spring mattresses made of wire netting) in one corner, and also a big tortoise style of stove and remnants of armchairs.  It is always easy to decide who occupied any trench out here: if the Germans there are numerous black bottles lying around, and if our men empty tins at one time containing butter, bully beef, jam etc.

            I am just going to drop Ethel a few lines so you must be content with four pages

            Yours,  Bernard.

In envelope addressed to Mr & Mrs Harry R. King, Esq., “Munmore”, Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin. Ireland.  Ans^d 23.7.16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE T.37.  19 JY 16.  Hexagonal PASSED FIELD CENSOR 3447.  Signed WD Samuels.

Thursday 13^th July 1916.

My Dear Ethel,

            Thanks very much for your last Sunday’s letter – about Wednesday in every week I begin to look forward to receiving one from Harry and yourself and it is very nice of you not to disappoint me.

            I am sorry to hear you are having such wet weather in Dublin, but don’t think you can justly blame our guns as being the cause, as here, where they certainly make themselves heard we are getting quite good weather.  In any case I hope they are doing something more than merely upsetting the weather.

            I didn’t say what I wanted most as I did not want to trouble you at all to send me parcels, but as one is I suppose now on the way, I will admit that I shall be delighted to get it.  We get splendid food considering the position and circumstances but there are times when something from home is just the thing, as of course our diet does not vary much.  I think also that I enjoy the excitement of a parcel almost as well as the contents – it is just like being back at school.  We are not badly off for butter as we occasionally have tinned butter served out which is splendid stuff, also tinned jam and marmalade.  I am sure however that your parcel will meet the case & from this day henceforth I shall worry the life out of the postman until I receive it.  I have just warned him to this effect.

            It is a great pity you are kept in suspense for such a time as to your destination.  I suppose one of these days Harry will get 24 hours notice, and that will mean a fearful rush.  You have all my prayers for a decent place.

            I am not certain but I believe that after we have been out here three months on duty leave is granted in batches to England or rather perhaps I should say leave is not granted until three months service here has been done.  There is a great difference, as some fellows have I understand been out ages without leave.  In these stirring times I expect all leave is stopped.

            If the officer in the R.G.A. you know is at the place you mention I expect he will be out here long before the date you name (Isn’t that paragraph the model of discretion, no names, places or dates).  It is one of the places that R.G.A. men go straight to the Front from.  I imagine he is bluffing his Mother as I tried to.

            I meant to warn Harry not to bustle you when you are writing me – dinner or no dinner – if the effect is to shorten your letters.  Fancy in bed till 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning, he can’t realise how much valuable time he is wasting.  It is an extraordinary thing but the best way to tell Sunday from a weekday here is by the amount of work.  The Sundays we have enjoyed (?) out here have been by far our hardest days – anything but a day of rest.

            Give my love to Ada and Susan and thank the former very much for the cake which is on the way – it is reassuring to know that this time it is not being made out of her head, altho’ I cannot remember any complaints.

            Yours with love

                        Bernard.

This letter was in the same envelope as Bernard’s letter to Harry of even date.

Flanders

July 13^th 1916.

My dear Ethel,

Thank you for note, and for the parcel you are going to send me.  If you get this note before it’s dispatched will you put in a toothbrush that you have finished with, as they come in very handy for cleaning rifles?  If you have sent the parcel or have no used toothbrush don’t bother.  I am very interested in the breast pocket affair & am waiting to see what it is like.  We are not the only occupants of our dug-out.  We have to tolerate things that can be felt and not seen.  Last night we plastered ourselves all over with “Trench ointment”.  It is very much like bicycle solution in appearance, smell and stickiness.  There is such a strong smell of this stuff about us & the dugout that we are wondering whether the bites are not preferable.  Harry was telling me in one letter that when he was at school his parcels always seemed to boast of camphorated chalk in everything.  Well in the next parcel mother sent me she put two packets of the stuff with the result that the cake was affected.  I never use the stuff.  We can buy what I use in the canteens here.  I met a boy in C Company who used to be at school with me & we have great chats on the happy days.  The weather has been very decent for the past week & the forest is lovely.  There are any amount of flowers that I haven’t seen before.  Trees are not allowed to grow as they please.  All the side branches are lopped off till the tree gets to a certain height; there is very little brushwood so the forest carpet has a chance to be very beautiful.  A large patch of a certain flower is encountered here and there & you have no idea what a sight it is.

Well, with fondest love, I am,

            Yours affectionately

                        Alan

Our dinner was a huge success.  Tender beef, new potatoes & green peas!

This was enclosed with the letter to Harry of 12^th.

Flanders

July 12^th 1916.

My dear Harry,

Very humbly indeed I am able to approach you after hearing the startling news from yours of the ninth that you have written me without one of my numerous efforts having been before you.  However without a doubt you had a letter from me on the tenth.  We have been and are still very quiet at our part of the line.   We have recently been in a rest camp but it is much better being where we are now as we don’t have half as much work to do.  We had to spend the best part of the day digging.  The march to the digging place took as long as the digging.  Also – very awful, you must agree – we had to get up at five-thirty.  Having breakfast at six-fifteen & a rifle, chin & button inspection at seven-thirty one couldn’t stretch a point beyond six.  In the bargain I was vaccinated the second day after the arrival at the rest camp.  Digging under such conditions was bad enough but I suffered most mentally as I thought I had dodged it.  At the rest camp however there were two canteens, a coffee & recreation room, farmhouses & estaminets.  That part was prettier too than any other place we have been to.  There were some lovely flower gardens in all their glory.  Today I had to go to the Medical Officer – being fifth day after the vac; – & I am excused digging & heavy fatigue.  My arm is quite the usual case.  None of your or Bernard’s affairs for me.  Oh of course I am in the best of spirits.  Give me some new clothes & I feel a terrible blood.  Mother sent me a pair of drill (or duck I forget what they are called) khaki shorts, and with bare knees I am a nut.  Our present dug-out is one of the best we have struck & we are very cosy.  Have you “More Fragments from France” by Capt Bruce Bainsfather?  It is his second volume of cartoons & it is surprising how true they are.  By the way I am not a runner to any publishing firm.

Last letter I suggested a magazine, I remember.  That also brings another thing to my mind.  Have you any news of the sale of your book of poems?  Have you received any dibs therefore lately?  Are you still thrusting objects of art on an undeserving nation?  One of my dug-out pals – of a literary turn of mind – is desirous of purchasing a copy of your “Sonnets”.  I don’t know how the business will be carried out.  We have been having new potatoes for the past week & a dozen of us volunteered to shell peas this evening so we are to have green peas tomorrow.  Incidentally we had a shelling competition in which I gained no prize but the last place.  I think I will now turn to your letter of the second which arrived the day after the letter I sent you last.  Of course I needn’t tell you that.  It goes without saying.  I am glad to see you are writing me every Sunday.  The steel helmet is my constant companion.  Our Company Sergeant Major sees to that.  Yes, the gas helmets are very effective.  If your helmet is all in order – and they are very careful on that score – and you put it on quickly enough you are absolutely safe from gas.  Without the helmet half a dozen whiffs are fatal.  You carry your helmet with you everywhere & see that they are within reach before going to sleep.  A spare one is issued to every man.  I expect you have understood that there has to be an easterly wind before we can be attacked & the moment the wind changes a gas alert is put on.  I have asked an R.G.A. sergeant if he knows where Bernard’s crowd is but he didn’t know.

I think I will close now.  I am enclosing a note for Ethel but I don’t know what I am going to say.

            Cheers!

                        Yours

                                    Alan.

On Active Service envelope addressed to Harry R King, Esq., Munmore, Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin.

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE 124, 15 JY 16.  Hexagonal Passed Field Censor 3274 cachet.  Signed but unreadable.

By

Major-General T. Bridges, C.M.G., D.S.O.

Commanding 19^th Division.

**************************************

11/7/16.

            The General Officer Commanding 19^th Division congratulates all ranks on the results achieved by the Division in the fighting of the last few days.

The storming of the village of LA BOISSELLE and its surroundings, fortified with every contrivance that an ingenious enemy could devise, almost impervious to artillery fire, and garrisoned by desperate men is a feat which will live in history.

During these first nine days of operation the Division has successfully carried out every task that it has been allotted.

In the course of a victorious advance in which every unit of the Division took part, it has captured over 500 prisoners, some guns and mortars and many machine guns, and has inflicted great loss on the enemy in morale, men, and material.  The determination and gallantry shewn by all ranks under conditions of the utmost difficulty and discomfort has been the subject of congratulations from the Commander-in-Chief and the Army Commander.

The G.O.C. is proud to command such a fine Division and though many brave Officers and men have fallen, the loss of whom he greatly deplores, he feels confident that the same fine spirit, the same high standard of gallantry and devotion to duty will continue to be shewn by the men of the 19^th Division, until complete victory is finally assured.

P.M. Davies. Lieut-Colonel.,

A.A. & Q.M.G., 19^th Division.

On YMCA headed notepaper

July 10 1916

Address Reply to Pte J.W. Weston 25739

3^rd attd to 1^st Leicestershire Reg

12^th I.B.D. c/o A.P.O. S 17

B.E.F.

France.

My Dear Mr Walters,

            You will think it is a long while since I wrote to you, I was looking forward to seeing you when I was home but you were away on your holidays, but I will see you when the war is over, that is if I have any luck.  I am finding a lot of fellows I know here, and I know I will find a lot more men in the firing line when I get there.  I expect you are not getting many men at our men’s service now, but they will come back when the war is over, which we hope will not be long.  Remember me to all.  I often think of you all now I am far from home, but I am trusting in God to bring me back safe.  I am in the best of health, hoping you are the same.  Well I dare not tell you any news so you must excuse short letters but I know you like to hear from us.  Well I will close with best wishes

From

Yours Sincerely

Will Weston. 

In envelope addressed to Rev T.W. Walters, Vicarage, Whitwick, Nr Leicester.  England.  Redirected to 8 Kilvey Terrace St Thomas Swansea.

Letter postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE S 17.  12 JY 16.

PASSED BY CENSOR 1447 in hexagonal cachet in red.

France

Saturday July 8^th 1916.

My Dear Harry,

            Thanks for your last Sunday’s letter which I received yesterday.  I am glad that you have at last received a letter from me, but I have written two & possibly three.  I daresay, however, you will by this time have received another.  I believe that owing to the bombardment you read about in the English papers our letters are held up somewhere as of course it is most important that no news however insignificant shall leak through.  I think there is no harm in my saying we are doing our share, and everyone is very optimistic here, which feeling is quite justified even by the scant news you get in England.  As B.J. Dillon and all the other critics say, this is an artillery war which means a huge amount of work and effort by the artillery.  Lessons have of course been taught by previous efforts, with I am sure advantageous results in this instance.

            I am afraid you must have been disappointed at not receiving letters from me for such a long time but as you will see by the date of my letters it is no fault of mine and therefore your opening remarks are not deserved.  I always endeavour to answer any letter within two days of its receipt, and usually succeed.  My letters to Mother must also have been delayed, although lately she seems to be receiving some.

            It has not been anything like as pleasant here during the past week as it was the first fortnight we were here.  The weather has been wretched, possibly owing to the gunfire and the consequence is that our position is a sea of mud of a most tenacious nature.  To add to our troubles our dugout did not prove proof against the heavy rain, but by hanging up mess tins here and there we have managed to keep dry while sleeping.  Everything however is dismally damp but it will take much worse than that to damp our spirits.  After the little I have already seen out here I am much more inclined to agree with Alan’s comparison of our lot with that of the Infantry, as altho’ we get plenty of hard work we can make ourselves infinitely more comfortable and settled.

            I would very much like to be able to write you freely as to the position out here but the authorities now are justly very strict and the safest plan is to mention nothing at all; this makes letter writing very difficult as we are in no way concerned with anything but military matters, and except with letters from home and an occasional newspaper are quite cut off from the World.  My opinion is that all us fellows being out here away from home for such a time, will be the making of home life when the War is over, as it is impossible to imagine how some of the fellows now talk about their homes and people and how they now value them.  It is not a question of homesickness at all.

            They are keeping you in suspense as to your new appointment and station, but I hope you will shortly hear some news and that you will soon be settled.

            I am glad to hear of Alan and to know he is well.  Seeing so much makes me very concerned with regard to him, altho’ our efforts are making it easier for them.

            It is good of you to ask what you can do for me and I know I need not be afraid of mentioning anything that I imagine I could do with, but at present there is no need for my troubling you.  I would like you, more than anything, to continue writing me every Sunday, even though you don’t get anything from me, which I can promise will not be any fault of mine.

            Give my fondest love to Ethel & with best wishes

            Yours,            Bernard.

P.S.  Do you remember the name of the place just outside Dublin where I had a game of golf when I was in Ireland last?  I have been trying to think of it recently, one of the fellows here has played on most courses round Dublin.  B.

P.S.S.  A very funny thing happened here today – some German prisoners were being escorted back and when they were not far from here the German guns opened fire.  The prisoners ran like mad and the escort (with full pack on) had a hard job to keep up with them.  Of course the Germans did not know they were shelling their own men, they were just indulging in a quiet straff.  B.

In envelope addressed to Harry R King, Esq., Munmore, Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin.  Ireland.  Ans^d 16.7.16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE R.30.  JY 10 16.  Hexagonal PASSED FIELD CENSOR 3447.  Signed F.G. Dwerryhouse

On YMCA headed notepaper.

No 20141 B Company 10^th Leicester Regt

Deerbolt Camp

Barnard Castle

 5 July 15

Dear Sir,

            I have now been away from home over a week and thought I should like to write a line or two to you.  I have had a rough time of it my arm has pained me through vaccination, but I hope soon to be alright again.

Our camp is situated in a very nice part quite near the ruins of Barnard Castle, the town is a very quiet old place, being only a small market town.  The life here is very different to home life, one has to mix with all kinds of fellows, but I am alright, we get plenty of good food, and exercise, and apart from this vaccination I am keeping well.

I shall be glad to have a letter from you anytime, as I often think of home and it is nice to receive news.

With kind regards

I remain

Yours truly

Pte A. Fellows

There is no envelope with this letter.