LETTERS FROM THE FRONT 14th May 1915, from Reg F. Knight (Royal Engineers),Field Post Office (France) to his brother, Mr Charles Graham Knight, 14/5/15 My Dear Brother, A few lines to try and tell you what it is like out hear. I am giving no state secrets away, only telling bare facts, so I think I can sighn my name on the back, I did intend to write to you a few days ago, but there was an awful din going on we were staying in a cellar in the day and working in the trenches or in front of the trenches at night. It was impossible to sleep on account of the noise and the shells kept stricking the house and pieces of it kept falling, so I thought I would leave it till we got back, for we go back for a day or two, but work just as hard when we get back, but we get two or three nights in, so we don’t mind. As you will see there has been some very heavy fighting round this way for the last two weeks, you say Brother you were confused to hear of me being in the front line of trenches, why. I have been at it since the end of August, and without a rest we out here are wondering if ever they will relieve us, and wonder “Will they ever come” It takes us all our time to keep together. You will understand that when I tell you we keep being moved to the places where the fighting is going on, at the present time I have got a splitting headache, owing to the use of the Gass used against us, but that is nothing, there was a big movement in this place a few days ago, and we went to the trenches in daylight; we saw the Germans coming in to attack but no one knocked us off work. I was Orderlie to one of our officers that day; and during the day we went across a piece of open ground, and they turned a machine gun on us but thank God I had the presence of mind to lay flat down, or I should not be telling you this, after they had found their position they started shelling, and it was hell with the lid off what with gasping for Breath and expectin to be blown to pieces, to say nothing of being unable to see. we have lost a lot of men this last few weeks, and about twenty horses, rather a sad thing happened the other night we were out doing barbed wire in front of the trenches, they had been warned that we were out there, we had almost finished when two of our men were shot right through the head by our own people, but things like that are not talked of in the papers...
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 08:49:37 +0000
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