Oignies, 11 may 1915
[Tuesday]
This really
is a letter with obstacles. I would have finished the letter yesterday were it
not our Feldwebel suddenly got an, what you would call, “excited frisson”, and
instituted a Putzstunde [= “polishing
hour”] from 7 to 8.30, because of improperly polished boots. The gentleman was
very upset by that.
We almost
died laughing. So I’m completely inoocent if you receive anything from me way too
late.
But I wanted
to write you a letter again today.
I very much
like duty here. We always have a lot to do, and after that we still have to
finish our homework, but it’s all in a very pleasant manner. We started at the
beginning again with parading, saluting etc, not to learn that all ourselves
again, but to learn how to teach others.
Today we’ve
been aiming at targets lying down, and that was really miserable. The winner managed
26 rings with 3 shots, I as runner up
had 25, and that with a rifle I had not fired with before.
You should
know that in the trenches you have a different rifle every 5 minutes. That is not
always to your advantage because every rifle fires a little different than the
other. My old one fired too high, now I seem to have one that fires too far to
the right. You have to get used to it and know exactly what you want to hit.
I really
did think that the others who have been here for much longer, and have also
been taught longer, would be much better shots than me. Furthermore, if I have
to be honest, us Einjährige are not
such good soldiers as many Zweijährige.
In practice that is ofcourse, not
necessarily in classes and in theory. But that has always been the case, and it
will always be the case.
On Sunday
the English have again tried to attack our positions, but of course,and that’s
how it should be, they got it good from us. I hope they didn’t destroy our
nice, newly made, barbed wire defences.
Recently
mother asked about Spanish Riders. Well, that are approx. 2 metres high
skeletons of poles which are covered with barebed wire in every possible
direction, and they are put before our trenches in several rows.
But enough
for today. I hope to have more luck with the next letter than with this one, so
that you are “compensated”, because you had to wait for so long.
With many
warm greetings to all acquaintances etc.
Your Fritz
I received
a letter from Walter Benzenberg, from Kalerarja, dated 24th April. Please
telephone that through.
The original letter
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