November 9^th 1916

My dear Harry,

At last I am able to make an effort at replying to your letters of the 22^nd and 29^th ultimo.  I don’t know what you will think of my harsh treatment of you but we have really been very busy lately.  You read through the lines wonderfully well.  They did have a very rough time while I was at the cage.  Had I not been there I might not be here today.  The whole of my team that went up were killed except one, who was wounded.  I don’t know when the war will be over.  Being a bit miserable I think it will last sometime.  How I hope not.  The prisoners looked awful wrecks mostly.  We could talk to them & they seemed to be delighted to be prisoners.  Now for replies to the 29^th letter.  My ankle is still swollen & when I am carrying heavy weights sometimes it gives & it is fearfully painful for a minute or two.  Otherwise it is painless & I stay with the battalion.  If one is in the trenches & has anything the matter he is sent to hospital.  If in supports he goes sick & is excused duty, given light duty or medicine & duty, according to the doctor’s judgement.  Bernard is right.  The mud is terrible, but when on working parties &c in the trenches we get boots, gum boots, that cover the whole leg.  They are waterproof but if you keep them on long your feet get wet by perspiring.  Nothing further is heard of Dickson & from latest opinions I believe he is dead.  He must have had a terrible death, poor fellow.  Exposure or exhaustion.  If he had been in hospital we would have heard by now.  I have not told his father as he should get official news soon.  I was glad to hear Mother was with you once again.  I often wonder how she must be worrying.  I had the parcel Mother sent from Worcester.  Thank you for the book which I will read at the first opportunity.  Thank Ethel for her two letters.  She will pardon my delaying a reply until later, I know.  Well, once again we have had a spell in the trench & a spell out in supports.  There is plenty of work in them & when not actually in the trenches (that is when in supports & reserves) we have to supply a strong working party for digging & carrying.  I hate working in the rain especially as they are six hour spasms.  It is much more difficult also when everything is so wet.  One good thing our section will do none of these fatigues in future as we have guns, carts & ammunition cleaning to occupy our time.  Yesterday the battalion were going up the line again but I am on my way to a place near the sea to receive a course for instruction in the machine gun.  We had a train journey till this evening & we are to report at bedtime when the R.T.O. (Rly Transport Officer) is going to find us some huge covered trucks to sleep in.  I expect we will continue the journey tomorrow.  The only thing I can do till reporting is to spend time in a Salvation Army Hut writing letters and eating & drinking.  It is quite a cosy place & the food is very good & remarkably cheap.  I expect your next letter will arrive at the battalion while I am away but I shall receive all letters &c safely on my return.  We are not very elated to learn that the tent floors of the camp we ultimately get to float all over the shop.  Of course I wouldn’t mind waking up & finding myself & “raft” on English shores.  The pictures on the back of today’s Daily Mail are interesting.  A couple of leave trains are evident & the people in them seem very jolly, which is not surprising.

Well I think I will close.  This long letter will repay to some extent the many I owe.  Give my love to Ethel.

Yours as ever,

Alan.

November 11^th.  Arrived & it isn’t at all muddy.  Tell Ethel I think the Irish soldiers very funny.

No envelope with this letter.

France 7^th November 16

Tuesday

My Dear Harry,

I must thank you very much for your long letter of the 29^th and note the number – I think however I must have missed a few of yours if the number of your last denotes the number written to me.  One thing about the numbering of letters to Mother, I always forget the number of the previous letter I sent her, and am therefore afraid the system is not much value.

I am very glad to hear you too have a cellar and if when I visit you you put down a few boards in it I shall after my experience here be able to make a home in it.  For our lighting arrangements we have to rely on candle power, which accounts for our clothes being covered in candle grease.

I myself very much doubt the eighty per week, especially, at this time of the year, and am confident that unless they are much faster (or rather not so slow) than the first ones and otherwise considerably improved they are useless.  They have only been used once to my knowledge.

I am sorry my desire to buy you something appears foolish to you but I am very anxious to do so and I think Mother being on my side I shall do so.  You spoilt the whole thing by reading a letter not addressed to you.

I was very glad to hear Mother was again with you and hope her energy on your wardrobe was well spent.  My wardrobe is getting very extensive as recently we have been issued with all sorts of things – when we move I don’t know how I shall manage to carry them all.  I now have a long waterproof cape, a fur jacket, in which I fancy myself immensely, it is a very smart affair being of black fur or rather goatskin, I suppose it is.  Amongst other things I have woollen gloves and undervests – all issued by the Army so you can see we are being well looked after for the winter & should keep warm in the coldest weather.

Until the day I received your letter, when I also received your letter, when I also received a Cardiff Weekly paper, I had only heard the faintest rumour of the Verdun victory.  For over a week we received no mails at all from England and therefore we had no idea at all of what was happening.  You get a lot more War news than we do.

I had a letter from Alan from which I see that he is not in France at present.  He has been making enquiries of every R.G.A. man he meets as whether they know where our Battery is and one has just told him that his Battery relieved us at a place we have never yet been to.  I am very surprised at the way Alan mentions place names in his letters and still more that they are not struck out.

I hope Alan will be able to get a few days leave, but it is a thing you are not certain of until you get to England.

Well I am just going to drop a line to Ethel and then turn in, so cheero

Yours,

Bernard.

In On Active Service envelope addressed to Mr & Mrs Harry R King, Esq., 38, Park Avenue, Worcester, England.

Ans^d 19.11.16.

Postmarked ARMY POST OFFICE *.**. 9 NO 16.  Hexagonal PASSED FIELD CENSOR 3447.  Signed SH Cooke