Bersée, 19 may
1915
[Wednesday]
Dear
family,
Since I
last wrote you I haven’t received any mail from you. You can see that our Kompanie treats the mail clumsily. Other
Kompanies get their mail daily. Then
the next time you receive mail you get a whole lot, which you then have to
schlepp around with you.
The course
is almost at its end. Maybe before Pentecost, or in any case shortly after the
feast days, we can go back to our Kompanie.
When exactly nobody knows, like always. The course wasn’t overly purposeful. I didn’t
learn many new things. But in any case I experienced it. It’s out of the
question that I’ll go to Döberitz or anywhere else in Germany. That happens, as
I have heard, only very rarely.
And
furthermore, I may not be the worst here, I’m not the best either. So let’s not
make illusions over holidays etc. I’d need a lot of luck for that.
In the best
case scenario I get my Knöpfe [=
promotion to Gefreiter/ Lance
Corporal]. That’s all. In any case I’ll be going back to my Kompanie, and they will then decide
further. I’m only worried about the way back to the front. That’s about 30-40
km’s. Luckily the weather isn’t that warm anymore. It has completely turned
around. It seems another rainy period has started. That’s good news for the
crops of course. By the way the crops look great, the grain stands almost a
meter high already, and the grass in the meadows reaches up to almost over your
boots. That’s why I got a pair of soaking wet feet today. But mother supplies
me with a great amount of socks, so it isn’t that bad. I still have at least
8-10 pair in my rucksack, and I’ve always had the dirty ones washed and mended.
I haven’t had to do that myself yet.
I rather
would have liked to stay here for a little while longer, I quite like it here
in Bersée. So it is only a little town , but it’s very cosy. We again have a
local hangout, like we had in Kevelaer, in one of the little shops. We are not
allowed to go to local taverns or cafes. But here we can also get excellent
coffee. 10 Centimes per cup, and if you take two you get the third one for
free. With it we have Leibniz keks
[Butter biscuits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz-Keks
] which are always fresh from Lille.
The lady of
the shop, a stout old woman, has a son in the army too. But she hasn’t heard
from him since the Germans are here, so since end of September. She swears at
the war all the time of course. But I tell her then that it’s the English who
started it. That’s what I always say when I talk about the war with the French.
Hopefully something sticks.
You’d be
amazed how well I can talk with these people and how well I understand them,
eventhough they have a terrible accent.
Huit [Eight in French] they pronounce as oat e.g., Allemagne as Alleman, paysan as pisang (Else and Hanna may find this interesting). It is very hard
to understand them sometimes.
Did you already
receive the picture I sent you from Auchy? You don’t write about it at all.
Benzenberg has another picture of me, on which I’m difficult to recognise though.
If you don’t have the other picture then Benzenberg maybe would like to give you
his picture.
But I’m at
the end of my wisdom. I really don’t have enough material anymore to write you
long letters. Please ask me questions, so that I know what you want me to write
about.
I only have
one subject in stock, and that is : Lice and the extermination of them. But I’ll
spare you, and I don’t really want to describe to you what it looks like here
in the evening when everyone “am Lausen
ist”, to use some “Barmer Missingsch”
[Barmer dialect] for a change.
Also schluß
With many
warm greetings to August and everybody else
Your Fritz
It’s too
much work to read through this letter again. So please excuse me obvious mistakes.
We just received a message: we are to be transferred to the 57’ers, because
they suffered many casualties in the last attack by the English [*1]. I don’t
believe it yet though. They don’t communicate here like they do at home.
[*1] Heeresbericht
of 16th May 1915:
Western
front.
[……]
South-west of Lille the English attacked our positions south of Neuve Chapelle,
after heavy preliminary artillery-fire. It was repelled in most places. In some
places fighting still goes on. […..]
Wardiary of 2nd South Staffordshires:
15th May 1915, Richebourg-l'Avoué
17th/18th May 1915, Richebourg-l'Avoué
15th May 1915, Richebourg-l'Avoué
16th May 1915, Richebourg-l'Avoué
The original letter:
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