Auchy, 15
april 1915
[Thursday]
Dear family,
I wrote you last the day before
yesterday. Since then I have not received any letters from you, but I did
receive 15 parcels at once, amongst them one from Aunt Vollmer, two from Aunt
Bonert and one from the Benzenbergs, please thank them all for me.
They would have been the remains of
the trench-party. All were addressed to Oignies, just one addressed to here.
Only a few had numbers on them.
So I’m richly furnished now, but
then there are always enough takers here, so nothing will go to waste. Of the
11 men who live together here almost nobody receives so much from home, so I’m
always sharing. But that’s no problem of course. You get something back from
them when they’ve fetched potatoes, or chopped firewood. My experiences with
the 10 other guys here are much better than with some back in Don, even if it
is part Polish and the other part Einjährige
[One-year-volunteers].
In the trenches I shared a dug-out
with two Poles, and I’ve had to change my opinion of these people. Then I didn’t
have anything anymore, but the two of them shared everything they had with me.
Cocoa, coffee, everything. Unfortunately
we’re not together anymore, so I can’t repay them now. The Einjährige of our Kompanie
in Don are scattered all over the Kompanies
here. I still see them almost daily, but we’re not exclusively together
anymore.
Furthermore all is still the same
here. I’m still doing well as before. It’s really very bearable here, even if,
like us, you sleep irregularly. The first few days I was réally tired. Now I’m
used to it.
Our work is pretty tough. We’re
always walking around with heavy rolls of barbed wire, digging in poles and
then attaching the barbed wire.
I always put on two pairs of gloves
now, first the grey woollen ones and then the gloves we got in Kevelaer. That
way my hands remain whole at least.
It was really bad in the beginning,
first I injured my finger and then a piece of barbed wire got stuck in it. That
was properly nasty. Both my hands were completely swollen. But now it’s a lot
better when I wear the gloves.
I wish you could see me when we go
to work.
So imagine: I’ll start at the
bottom. First of all a pair of fine button boots with shiny tips, then white puttees,
then blue work trousers, and an ultramodern cutaway.
We all look like that. It is of no use of course to spoil your uniform with
tar, or having it cut by the barbed wire.
All the things [the furnishings in
their cellar] some from the village. You can find everything here: sewingmachines,
bikes, crystal vases etc, all lying around in the street. You only have to take
what you want. In our little stove we like
to burn cupboard-panels etc which burn perfectly, only ofcourse when the
cupboards are broken already, which usually is the case.
It’s really sad to see how everything
here is destroyed by the war. There are no civilians in Auchy anymore of
course. It must have been a sad sight to see those people flee from here, with
everything they could carry. Some of us have seen the long line of refugees.
As far as I know the people have
been accomodated in Lille and surroundings.
Imagine this happening in Germany.
Would you then still complain?
It is usually quiet here on the
frontline, but there is always shooting going on ofcourse. Not too much from our
side, more from the English side. Our artillery usually starts in the morning,
to which the English then respond with some pistol fire. [“10 Schuss”]. And then again at night when they think our
fieldkitchen arrives.
They usually fire their big
sulphurgrenades, which spread more stench than they do damage. That is because
those grenades explode too high up. If you lay down on the ground, the
fragments fly over you. I haven’t seen yet what it is like when such a grenade
explodes nearby.
Furthermore the English usually fire
sharpnell shells. Of the 10 they fire off at least 4 are duds. Their American ammunition is pretty bad.
Then there are the mines and
handgrenades. Mines are fired from a very small cannon, from one trench into
the other, and fly relatively slow. Certainly at night you can clearly see them
coming.
Behind the nearest high parapet [”Schulterwehr”] you’re safe. They make
more noise then anything else.
The original letter:
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