France (D), 7 July 1915
[Wednesday]
Dear
family,
Yesterday I
received mother’s letter of the 4th with the photographs, which made
me very happy. Why would I then get home-sick? First of all it’s of no use when
you’ve been away for so long.
Furthermore
I just don’t have the time for that. I’m extremely happy you all look so well,
especially father and Else. Being engaged does her good, she’s put on weight.
Mother could have put on a happier face, despite the war, and Helen could have
looked better. On both photographs Hanne looks like she just felt a louse
walking across her tummy. Was it that? Or is that the fashion these days? And
then Stropp [Fritz’s dog] has become
way too fat. People tell me August is the one to blame for that. So I have to
kindly but firmly request him to not fatten him that much. Start by feeding him
one less time per day (I mean Stropp
of course) [*1]
Then
parcels nr 198/99, 200 and nr 1 arrived yesterday. Many thanks for everything.
I’m very
sorry Hans [Heynsche] took ill. Hope it doesn’t get any worse.
I’ve
received the money both times, as I have already written to you.
Yesterday I
also received a letter from the Steigleders. I’ll reply to them immediately.
I don’t
have much to write or to tell actually. I visited Karl’s grave yesterday [Karl Steigleder]
They’re at
work at the cemetary at the moment, laying new paths etc. , so I want to wait
with photographing the grave untill next time I’ll come into rest. They should
have finished by then.
And the
photograph will look a lot better. I’ve already talked to one of our Sergeants
about photographing. Maybe I can have my
Ticka by that time to make that
photograph.
The 16’er
that mother met in Doppersberg [a
street in Barmen/Wuppertal, south of the river] will have a hard time finding
me here. 11th Company is, as far as I know, always in the trenches
when we are at rest.
Well, what
else to write you? It’s usually the same old thing here, which means I have
little to write about. The main thing is in any case that you know I’m doing
well.
We have
repaired the trenches, after the English destroyed them. It was a lot of work,
but now they’re even more secure than before. It won’t be so easy now to damage
them.
By the way
the English have been very quiet lately. It seems they wihtdrew their heavy
artillery and the main part of their troops here, to deploy them somewhere
else.
You can
notice the English are now weak here, and frightened as a result, ass they now
shoot like mad-men during the night. Just now they fired off 28 flares in 40
minutes.
We fire off
a lot less, and then only if we spot something.
So, mother
will ask a lot of questions in her next letter in order to give me stuff to write
about.
With many
warm greetings Your Fritz
[*1] Sadly
the whereabouts of the photographs of his family he talks about are unknown to
me.
The
original letter:
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