I did not quite know what was the meaning of the telegram the other
day. It was dated April 1st, which made me rather suspicious, and it
did not arrive here till April 4th. I wired immediately, but it is
difficult to do so; I wrote last Sunday and once the week before; I
hope you have received them all right. You can be quite happy about me
now, as after this afternoon I shall be quite safe for some time. This
afternoon I had my first real taste of heavy shell fire, and I was
glad to find that I did not object to it half as much as I thought I
should. We were doing a pre-arranged strafe into a German salient--two
trench mortar batteries and all our artillery on to their first and
second lines, &c. We put over about 4,000 lbs. of shells from the two
mortar batteries in ten minutes and absolutely crumpled about 150
yards of their trenches. There is no trench there now--just a mass of
earth, great girders, pointing jauntily skywards, timbers drooping
over where the parapet was, and the front of the trench, where any
remains, leaning in a tired fashion against the back of it. Of course,
directly we started the Germans got going with all their artillery at
us. "Jack Johnsons," so-called howitzers--I have never heard such a
noise. I was observing in our salient; they had cleared all the
infantry out except the machine guns. I had my eyes glued to a
periscope, and never noticed most of the stuff coming over till I had
to go along a deserted trench to give orders to my guns, and they put
over in one place four shells from big howitzers into the stream
within 10 yards of me. I enjoyed it; it was topping to see the Bosche
parapet crumpling away, lighted every half second or so with a weird
flash, covered with smoke, and the earth rocking with the concussion.
They must have lost a lot of men; we lost only about three killed and
a dozen or so wounded, none in my battery I am glad to say. In about
half an hour all was quiet again, and I was observing the damage
through a topping periscope, which magnifies ten times, when I saw
four German officers crawling among the debris and distinctly saw them
from the waist upwards. I had no rifle worse luck, and when I found a
sniper they had gone. Fancy missing four German officers. They had
grey uniforms and grey caps on and Sam Browne belts. That is what we
have been working for, for the last week making emplacements to guard
against their shells. At present we are rather being messed about; we
are supposed to be going back for about a month's rest, which no one
wants--a rest means twice as much work as you do in the trenches, and
no excitement. After that we shall probably go to somewhere
unpleasant. We are being relieved here by men who were in the same
place as Lovel.
Much love to all, from your loving Son,
ALEC.
(_After this date the names of places are inserted from a diary which
was sent home later._)
April 14th.