Pte W Cooke 2559

15 Platoon D Com

5^th Battn

Leic Regt

B.E.F.

France.

Sun Apr 25/4/15

Rev T.W. Walters,

Dear Sir,

            I now take great pleasure in writing these few lines to you as I am one of your Church Lads and am now in the trenches somewhere in France but I am not allowed to say where.  I hope these few lines of mine you and you and your Family in the best of health as it leaves me the same.  I should be very much pleased if you would kindly send me one of our Parish Magazines as I should like one very much to see how the folks at good old Whitwick are going on.  I am writing this letter in one of the dugouts just behind the firing line as we take it in turns to be in the firing line and when you have been in two days and two night you are relieved and go down in support trench were you can have a sleep at night as you cannot get much rest in the firing line.  I expect this letter will come as a surprise to you as you had hardly been in our midst long enough when I came away to get acquainted with all your parishioners but am hoping to be so when I get back home once moiré which I have hope will not be long.  It is somethink awful to see the ruined homes round where we are and there is a village about half a mile from where I am at present that as not got a whole house in the place even down to the Church that makes the third one that I have seen in ruins since I have been out here.  There is one feature of this country that is very noticeable that at every cross road the is either a shrine or a Crucifix placed there and in niches of the houses you statues of the Virgin Mary and some of these shrines are very nice ones as well.  This makes my fourth time of being in the trenches as we go in for four days and then we go out to some rest hut for four days but we have had two fine days in as we could not get relieved on the nights when our time was up so that makes us fourteen days in and to what we have heard we where have a month of it in relief 10 days in and 16 days out so we have nearly done ours and then we were to be relieved by another lot and go away from the trenches for a while but I cannot say much about that as we have to wait and see and the men get so many tales about.  Our firing line is about 100 yards from that of the Germans but those of a regiment on our left are only 40 yards away so they are near enough.  We do not have the whole lot of 100 in the trenches at the same time only one half, the other half are held in reserve and they have nothing to do all day but keep under cover so that the enemy’s aircraft cannot see them as if they did they would soon start and shell them so they have to work at night under cover of darkness and they have to bring the rations up to us in the trenches and anything we need up there like timber and sandbags and that’s the most dangerous part to do as most of the shots come over the top of the barricade and the men who are bringing the rations up are in danger all the while they are on the job as when you are once in the trenches you are safe as being at home as long as you do not keep your head up long as they are good shots and if you keep the periscope up many seconds you soon have a bullet through it.  I expect you know what a periscope is without me telling you but it is made of two mirrors placed in a long tin box one at the top and one at the bottom and it is a very good thing as you do not have to put your head above the sand bags.  Well you must not take notice of the date as I shall not be able to give it in till Tuesday as we do not get relieved till Monday night and then the Officer as to read it to see that we have not put anything in that the Censor would not pass but we are allowed a special envelope once a week so that we can put in any private matter about your family or sweetheart but you must not put the names of any place and I think that is very good of them.  As I am writing this the order as come down now that we can give our letters in tonight so you will get in a bit sooner than I thought and it will be very nice for us two as we have plenty of time to write while we are here.  We are getting plenty of good food out and the only thing we go a bit short of is bread but very often we have a loave a day each man so we have to save from that day for when we go short as taking it on or the whole it his no lie in saying that we are the best fed army in the world.  Well I shall soon have to come to a close as it is getting tea time with us but I think if I had been at home I should just about getting ready for Church but now times have altered and while you are at Church I shall be standing too but I shall be thinking of you at the same time we have to stand to as soon as it begins to get dark and then at dawn at those our the time when they generally attack so we always get prepared for them in case they do but they have not done so yet but if they do they will find us ready for them.  Well I will now bring my letter to a close but as you will not know who I am please ask Ablert Roulstone and he will tell you as I used to come to Church with him so this ends my first letter to you hoping it will not be the last so will now close.

I remain

Your friend

W.H. Cooke

In envelope addressed to The Rev T.W. Walters, The Vicarage, Leicester Road, Whitwick, Leicestershire.  England.

Letter postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE IM 28 AP 15

PASSED BY CENSOR 405 triangular cachet in red.