A LETTER FROM THE FRONT.
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Young Bermudian Writes.
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I�ve had my first taste of fire. I�ve been in the firing line at Wolvergem and Ypres. Wolvergem is the place where the London Scottish did their famous charge, I was a little restless at first, of course, that�s only natural, but after a couple of hours I became used to it: now I don�t care a hang about it. Its [sic] a great life the Tommies lead in the trenches. They are as happy as the day is long. Its fine fun wading about up to your knees in mud and the bullets whistling about over your head. If you happen to look over the top twice in the same place a German sniper will have you; its good fun dodging them. Of course I suppose you have read enough to know what kind of place Ypres is: its very warm there, I can assure you, plenty of Jack Johnsons coming over all the time. Its a fine life we live out here, Dad, all kinds of fun. We dig ourselves in the ground like rabbits and defy the Germans to drive us out. They shell us in the daytime but don�t do us very much damage. Of course we don�t shell them, no, only a little bit. The big guns are barking behind usall day long, shells rushing overhead. The German shells tell you where they are made; they seem to say Krupp as they come through the air. After the day�s shelling is over we start in: one minute the troops on our left get the wind up, they start blazing away, then we catch the complaint and so on it goes down the line. Then it gets quiet for a little while; all of a sudden you hear a trench mortar go off with a very loud bang; then we�re off again. We are so close to each other that we can hear the Germans singing and talking in the day time. When it gets a bit quiet they sing out to some of our Tommies and you may bet you life that Tommy always has an answer for them. Another thing in the night time, as soon as they get it in their heads that we are coming, up goes hundreds of star shells. Then what a racket. Good Lord! Thousand [sic] of shots are fired and she suddenly dies down. Then you hear Tommy say �wind up again.� If [sic] course its not always wind up, it is true, but Tommy can always give any two Germans a run for their money.
Our officers are the finest men that ever walked. I�ve often heard Americans pass remarks about them at home but I wish they could see them out here. They have no fear at all; they don�t know what it is. It makes a fellow feel proud to think he has such men as they to lead them [sic]. They go into everything with a dash that would make any man proud to serve under them.