Flanders

July 27^th 1916

My dear Harry,

I received Ethel’s parcel and letter on the 25^th.  There were no letters that day.  Yours came yesterday.  I sent Ethel a postcard yesterday which will probably arrive at the same time as this letter.  This is the first opportunity I have of writing and thanking you for the parcel.  The butter arrived in the pink of condition and at a very opportune moment.  The cake disappeared so quickly that there is no doubt as to its popularity.  The books, toothbrushes & ginger are all coming in very handy.  It was very sensible indeed of you to take the twelve days.  I hope you both have a decent little holiday.  If the weather is the same as ours you couldn’t have it better.  There must be no doubt about your going to the sea side.  Go.  This time I am in the front line and we have had a warmer time of it.  There has been any amount of shell activity.  Rifle grenades, which have a small danger zone, have been very common.  Trench mortars I believe they have visited us once daily.  They are huge things and as dangerous as the largest of shells.  They are very high explosives & vary from 15 lbs to 200 lbs. I think.  When they are coming over we get out of our dug-outs & watch for their arrival.  I believe trench mortars are the only things you can see coming over.  They look like tremendous black sausages.  Aerial torpedoes and Silent Lizzies also abound.  The former have three explosions.  We send a little stuff over & get quick returns.  Fritz & Co are very cute.  They send one or two trench mortars & we are out of our dug-outs when they start rifle grenades, silent lizzies and the torpedoes – quite a shell salad.  A rifle grenade burst on the wall opposite our dug-out entrance, pushed one of our chaps right inside &  shook up the other two.  I was on duty elsewhere at the time & didn’t have any as close as that.  Of course every one of us has a tale of a bit of shell being only a few inches off & other narrow escapes.  I’ve had a couple of rifle grenade bits rather close myself.  The middle of last night however was the tit-bit.  I am not allowed to say what we did but anyway it resulted in a very hot bombardment.  The light from explosion flashes, star shells, signals & smoke made it like daytime.  There is no doubt we upset them considerably.  We were very affectionately disposed towards the bottom of the trenches.  I was on duty all day yesterday also almost all night so I am very tired this morning.  How did you find out where Bernard was?  I guessed that is where he would be.  I am wondering if you have any idea of our locality.  I tell Mother very little & often mention things to you that I might tell her but which escape my mind at the time I write, so tell her if there is anything you think she would like to know.  Whilst we were out last time three of us went to a town very close to our camp & followed your advice by having a bottle of rattling champagne between us.  Needless to say we like it very much.  We had a meal there, each bought an aluminium ring made from part of a German shell & several other things in the eating line.  We did champagne in style by having cigars at the same time & propose a similar outing at a very early date.  The last time I heard from Mother – four or five days ago – she was at Ross and seemed quite well.  Olive was still away at Neyland.  The Colonel caused a notice to be issued to each company about commissions.  If you eventually obtain a commission four & a half months have passed since you applied for it.  The next five lines in the original are censored out.  The applicant has to be prepared to spend a couple of months in a Young Officers School & pass examinations.  The next three lines in the original are censored out.  Now what do you think of it?   Very few people want to be left half an hour longer in the army than possible; although I suppose it’s O.K. in peace times.  What on earth is to prevent a man resigning his commission?  How can they?  I suppose they would make you swear volumes.  I have not applied yet but I expect I shall.  It is said that in the event of nearly everyone applying it is most probable we would be turned into an O.T.C.  Now I will write a few lines to Ethel & wish you goodbye

            Yours as ever,

                        Alan.

My dear Ethel,

Thank you very much for the parcel.  I have told Harry it arrived in perfect trim.  The writing pad affair is great.  We had an extra pocket made in our tunics & it was then discovered it was useless for the purpose intended, namely of carrying the second gas helmet, and the wallet just fits the pocket nicely.  I don’t care if the ginger is good for me, I like it.  Very few of my chums like it but I make them have some now & then.  It was a great pity the screen went.  You must swot up the prices of everything in future.  Still you don’t want to have to cart out more furniture than you can help until you are fixed up, although, on the other hand, antiques are rarer in England by long chalks.  From time to time I see a few odds and ends that I think I would like over here but I don’t seem to think they are much good & in any case it is impossible for me to get anything & store it or send it home.  There are any amount of things you ladies would find handy in the household such as casseroles, fruit preserving jars & all sorts of sticks that cannot be obtained in England.  In many little ways I have noticed but forgotten they have an advantage over us.  I wonder where you are going.  I do hope it’s a decent place near Cardiff.  Would you like to be in a small county town or a fairly large town?  In several of the French shops the proprietors have to be beaten down & whether they know we soldiers know it or not I don’t know.  If I want a thing I give them whatever they ask.  I am not at all keen on haggling with a French dame on something that costs a franc.  I was very amused the other day.  A fellow in some other battalion went into a shop for some tooth paste & I heard the lady say one franc four-pence.  The chap hum and har’d & finally offered her seven-pence halfpenny.  The lady explained that as the article cost one franc two-pence she was far from accepting his offer.  Consequently there was no business.  Another time we were in a shop trying to get a ring to fit one of us & we were speaking in (our own) French & every ring was tried on but one couldn’t be found to fit so we said we were sorry & suddenly the demoiselle jerked out “Nothing doing” in a very comical fashion.  She showed us a helmet her forefather had won in some battle some years ago.  At a “bijouterie” (jewellers) an article would be purchased for one franc.  In a little shop the same article cost one franc two pence.  In such a case we told the old dame that we had bought a similar thing cheaper & she said where.  We told her & she replied “Oh! yes, at the jeweller’s.”  She has to go there for the purchase.  They don’t seem to have our retail & wholesale way at all.

Well, I think I have come to the continued in our next part, so must close remaining with much love,

            Yours affectionately,

                        Alan.

On Active Service envelope addressed to Mr & Mrs. H. R King, Munmore, Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin.  Ans^d 6/8/16.

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE 28 JY 16.  Hexagonal Passed Field Censor 3274 cachet.  Signature of front probably W.G. Shaw.