Another letter from my husband’s great uncle, Alexander Henry Tod, writing from France in WWI.
19/10/15
Nothing very new to report as we have not moved since my last letter. There is another division coming up to occupy our billets tomorrow night so we will have to make a move somewhere. We are however in reserve in the present operations and I don’t suppose will be called upon to do anything desperate just yet. Our present duties are to supply the various fatigue parties and I took the whole company out today to work on a shale heap which happened also to be occupied by a battery of our heavy artillery, so I had quite an interesting day watching them at work. Some of the guns were right behind us and to have these huge shells whizzing just overhead was quite an experience. The Germans did not return the fire, which was perhaps as well.
I move into another billet last night which although more commodious has a very hard stone floor and takes a lot of getting used to. I got word today that my missing kit has turned up at Folkestone and have instructed the Railway Co. to send it back to the Glasgow office, as I have enough stuff here to go on with and will get them to send out replacements as I require them.
We do not seem to be making much progress in the War at present but probably time is doing more than we can, and patience is a great virtue at this game. Germany is apparently expending her energies quicker than we are and what we have to do is to restrict her activities as much as we can.
Comment – he couldn’t have been more wrong.
These letters began on October 9th, 1915. You can find the rest of them by searching the tag or category ‘Somewhere in France’.
The next letter can be found here.
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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction and blogs about all aspects of the genre at A Writer of History. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union on August 16, 2016. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.
5 Responses
Fascinating! And the quality of the writing is really something. Wow.
I agree with you on the quality of the writing – a good model if you’re setting a story in that era. I’m actually not reading them myself until it’s time to post another one. Keeping the suspense going.
What a gift, Mary, to have access to these letters. They must evoke emotion for your family upon reading them.
Thanks for your comment, Gwen. I love it when new folks stop by and I see you’re a fellow Canuck. I hope you’ll visit again. All best for your writing.