Don, Sunday 14 March 1915
Dear family,
Since Wednesday I received mother’s
letter of the 7th, furthermore parcel nr 36, one with fenneloil and
bags of insecticide, which I have no use for yet, and one with the little pillow
which already has served me well, and will continue to do so a lot in future.
The latest parcels were not numbered. I also believe the porkchops etc will not
arrive in eadible condition anymore. But up to now everything, also the
sausages, has arrived in perfect condition.
You don’t have to send me clean
underwear. There are a lot of women here who are happy to earn a few pfennig
with washing. And I don’t have to throw anything away.
I usually go to a women here in the
Hindeburgerstrasse. She even darns my socks. The people here are actually very
friendly. Every time I go there there’s a nice cup of coffee waiting for me,
for which the people will not accept any money.
They always say “C’est la Guerre”
When the war is over we’ll come to Germany and have a cup of coffee at your
place”
But while thát is impossible at the
moment I always thoroughly enjoy the coffee there. I’ve given the people already some
darned socks for their son. I could easily do without them.
The ban on buying anything in the
village has been lifted again. It was only put in place because everything was
getting way too expensive.
A little cooker would come in handy,
but I request you not to send me one. I wouldn’t know how to get it all
into my backpack, and I don’t really have any use for it here.
A lot has changed here since last
Wednesday. We have recaptured Neuve Chapelle.
We also got some of the action,
through aeroplanes. On Saturday, yesterday, in the morning one came flying over
as usual.
It was, as always, shot at by our
artillery and then, with cut engine, it went straight down. We all thought it
had been hit. It went down untill it was near the railway station, and threw
some bombs which luckily did not cause any damage. In the afternoon the whole
history repeated itself, this time though we were not so lucky.
Some guys from our Company were
unloading the mail. 2 of them dead, 8 lightly wounded. The main target – destroying
the traintracks – again he did not meet.
At the moment all kinds of security
measures are in place, to prevent it happening again.
Our Company has been standing guard ["Fliegerwache"]
here at the churchyard, where I picked the accompanying flower [*] from 05:30
in the morning to 18:00 at night. We were in the trenches the whole day. It
actually was quite pleasant. Only, much to our chagrin, not one aeroplane flew
overhead. If one had we would have welcomed it in a nice manner, everyone of us
had 70 bullets.
And we were not even quite back yet,
or another Company had shot one. I’ve just seen it crash.
But you shouldn’t worry about all
this. They are not after us, but after the station.
But end. I’m a little tired at the
moment.
With many greetings your Fritz
[*]
100 years later the flower still acompanies the letter
The original letter:
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