Don, Wednesday 10 March 1915
Dear family,
I received mother’s parcel letter of the 3rd. Furthermore parcels nr 27,
28, 32, one with cheese, and one with sardines and jam. Many thanks for
everything.
Furthermore a letter came from Else
from sometime ago. I don’t know whether I had acknowledged receipt already. I
think so though.
It really is not good grumbling at
the Fieldpost. If you see the amount of post for our Company alone, and then
the many fieldpost-trucks driving past.
It is not that bad if something gets
lost now and then. In the end it will benefit a soldier. Whether that is me or
someone else is really the same.
Father should not worry about the
coldstores. When Peace is there everything comes together again. Other
businessmen suffer even more from the war. It accounts for something that the
City and Government have rented part of it, doesn’t it.
What do you the feed the horses now?
Here turnips are turned into cattlefeed. The turnips are first ground into
small pieces and then dried. Even though it is surrogate cattlefeed, it’s better
than nothing. How does it work in Germany? Here there are plenty of turnips to
make cattlefeed from.
Very nice of the Benzenbergs to pay
you a visit. Let mother pay them a visit sometime. Then they can find comfort
with eachother if they need it. I do hope though that is not the case.
When I have a lot of time I’ll write
to the Benzenbergs. Maybe they’ll send me a parcel too.
Lately I haven’t had much appetite
to write. Service is now particularly heavy every time. I’m always dead-tired.
We were told by two wounded from La
Bassée that today a lot is going on at the front.
The English have attacked again. At
La Bassée they [the Germans] repelled the attack, causing tremendous losses on
the English side. At Neuve-Chapelle however they [the English] gained some
ground. They want to drive them back tonight.
I have never heard such a thunder of
guns as today. You couldn’t even distinguish between the separate gunshots
anymore. It’s more like a constant loud boom, going on uninterruptedly from
9-10 this morning. [*]
Then there was a mass of aeroplanes
flying overhead, and they were very lively shot at by our anti-aircraft guns
[“Ballonabwehrkanonen”] and fieldhowitzers. The aeroplanes came so close that
the shrapnel of the grenades they were being shot with landed inbetween us.
That shrapnel ofcourse can’t do any damage.
But I need to stop. Tonight we may
have a Grand Alert, and I want to pack my backpack just in case.
Hopefully I can then unpack it again
tomorrowmorning.
With many greetings also to all
acquaintances I am your Fritz
[*] 10 March 1915 – Start of the
Battle of Neuve Chapelle
At the bottom of the last page of this letter there is a little scribble :
This is the only letter that has such a little scribble.
The original letter :
The 16ers appear to have taken significant losses during this period. I am guessing that this will have been the reason why Fritz would have been amongst the new soldiers who would join the 16ers.
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