1 - Kevelaer, 7 January 1915

  Kevelaer,  7.1.1915

[Thursday]

D(ear) F(amily)  I'd like to write to you what you have to send me : 1 flashlight (The lighting in our room is not really very good), 1 waterproof vest (I got soaked to the bone today), apart from bread I don't need anything to eat. I can buy everything here. So don't send anything.

I've been billeted in a nice place, I now live in Hotel zum Roten Hahn. I can't have it better, and better is also not available here. It feels like a holiday. So if you'd like to pay me a visit here, please do. Then you can get to know this pleasant town. By the way I don't need my boots.

Your Fritz.

PS: pls send me a leather wristband for the watch.

Kevelaer lies near the border with the Netherlands, just north of Geldern.
During the first months of the Great War  Kevelaer was a hospital-town, but this did not last long. An inspection by the authorities found that only 200 of 1400 beds available were deemed suitable.
From late November 1914 Kevelaer became a garrison-town, and 1500 new recruits of  Infanterie-Regiment 56, which had its base in Wesel and Cleve, occupied the beds in the various hotels and private houses.