Note: not in an envelope.

Dear George,                                                                   25.4.17

 

                    I believe I have two letters of yours to answer, but seem to have neither of them on me. There was nothing that specially required answering was there?

As I have an hour or so to spare, you might be interested, if I could succeed in giving you some idea of what the fighting is like as we see it from away back. It is obvious from the newspapers that we have no more reached the stage of open warfare now than in last September. The Boche retirement on the Somme front, gave an appearance of mobility, & opportunities for cavalry action, but I think that was chiefly because the infantry did not seize their opportunities quickly enough & permitted themselves to lose touch with the Boche.

                                                                                      16.5.17

                    This letter is getting on fast, isn’t it. Well the above is still true. But now for an individual battle. We weren’t in it ourselves, but we were brought up in support ready, I suppose, either to fill the gap in the event of things going badly, or to follow up any advantage that might be gained. Our HQ actually moved before day-break, & I was strolling over a hill with my signallers strung out behind, in the feint light of dawn when zero hour arrived. You did not need to look at your watch to discover that. All the time we were moving up the artillery was just lively; that is to say you would hear about three shots per minute, but of course you could hear them from a long distance around. Then in an instant the air was filled with the sound of the barrage. I cannot invent similes for it; long ago people talked of the thunder of the guns, & lately the Boche invented the term ‘drum fire’. Those help to suggest the row. You notice variations in intensity, as there is when waves break upon a shore; but no intermission; & these seem also to be irregular beats, marked by some heavy gun whose sound ripples to reach you with less loss than others. But the beats are not the culminations of any increasing or decreasing sound; they are rather occasional peaks of intensity higher than the general swell & ebb. You no longer count the separate shots; there is not a half second without one, indeed without several, and this now as well extends as far as ear can reach on either side.

                             There’s not much to see. Within a few seconds of zero time a Brock’s benefit streaks out along the front line; with very lights to illuminate the scene, red or green or golden or whatever may be the Boche’s SOS for the time being, and then all the other colours available

in one part or another, for not a signal which can be conveyed by lights but will be wanted by some section or other of the front.

                             That goes on for a quarter of half an hour & then the artillery slackens, possibly remaining intense on one part of the front & ceasing almost completely at another; but ready to break out afresh all along the line the instant the occasion arises.

                             What of the fighting? Well of that particular show we could see nothing, on account of darkness & distance & shape of the ground. In a daylight show, when the latter factors were the limitation, I have seen little specks of men run over the crest of  hill,----- & that’s all; until the messages  begin to creep in, & the ambulance cars to slide past.

                             In the light too, you may see the other end, so to speak, of the barrage, you probably well know the sort of geyser of earth which marks the fall of a shell, & the puff of cloud that stands for shrapnel. Well there are no geysers, or clouds. The front line is a hedge of splashing earth merging with a fog of shrapnel bursts. Even our front line is that, for of course the Boche sends his contribution within a minute or so of zero time; I suppose his front line is just a thicker hedge & denser fog.

                    I have mentioned to you before that the accuracy of all these descriptions depends entirely upon the point of view on hearing. In one of the Somme shows I was in front of the guns just at zero hour, having gone out for a stroll along a line, & in fact there was  a ridge between me the nearest guns. So the drumming was much muffled, & what made me take out my watch  to verify that zero hour was come, was that the sky above  was suddenly filled with whistling, the pleasant whistling of shells going well over.

                    Now that’s enough for a letter isn’t it.