Written
5 June 1915
[Saturday,
in Douvrin]
Dear
family!
The day
before yesterday I received mother’s letter of 30th May, and a parcel with
chocolate etc. , and yesterday 3 parcels containing eggs, smoked meat,
condensed milk and cakes. Furthermore 1 parcel from Paul Weyerbuschs (Please
thank him) Many thanks for everything.
First of
all mother’s letter. You can safely send
the shoes. Parcels don’t take that long. H. Mais received his after 8 days. To buy
them here is impossible. You’d have to drive to Lille or Douai for that. But even if it takes 6 weeks it will be worth
sending them. I can always use them later, even when the war has ended by then.
I have received the braces a long time ago already. And the money you send me
is always welcome ofcourse.
By the way:
during this war season I don’t need much fatty stuff. We can get enough of that
here. Butter has always arrived in good order. Also the eggs lately. Of course
it can be kept longer when in tins, but it doesn’t really matter when it’s gone
a bit off. Unfortunately I can’t send the tins back. You need permission from
the company commander every time you send something back, and the Feldwebel has
to seal the package.
I’ve also
noticed that the tins are véry small. It would be great if you could send me
larger ones. And I’d like you to send me those indivually packed sweet that the
Weuerbuschs’ always send me. Would be great, when you’re on guard-duty at night,
to have something to suck on. It keeps you more awake and alert.
Then I
urgently need a new Halsbinde [*1] ,
preferably a silk one, colour doesn’t matter, Feldgrau if possible. It looks like this:
About 4-5
cm wide, ties on both ends, and a slit to pull them through. Those Binden are better than the knitted ones,
and also not as warm in summer. I don’t
need anything else at the moment.
Yesterday
we came out of the trenches, and are now enjoying our 4 days rest.
The last
day [in the trenches] turned out to be an interesting one . The English
attacked the 56’ers next to us, but they got it good again.
We could
see everything perfectly. First there was their artillery and they came out of
their trenches in a relaxed fashion. They didn’t get far though. Our
machineguns did their work efficiently, and soon they had had enough and retreated. We left them alone, otherwise the outcome would have been even worse for
them. They say the 56’ers captured 200 priosners of war, and 2
machineguns. I don’t know whether that’s true or not. Did you read anything
about that in the papers? [*2]
The Prellbock is our most forward position
on the railwaytrack La Bassée-Béthune, and is called after the trainbuffer [= “Prellbock” in German] which is incorporated
into our position. The name has no further meaning. It’s really beautiful up there.
Only the dugouts
could perhaps be a little smarter, but they’re okay in this dry weather.
Doch der Stoff geht
mir aus. Please write with
questions about what you’d like to know. That I’m still healthy and cheerful is
something that I really don’t have to write you every single time.
So with
many warm greetings to all of you and all acquaintances I am your Fritz
[*1] The Halsbinde was
meant to protect the wool collar of the tunic from wear; not as is commonly
thought, to prevent the collar from chafing the soldier's neck. The comfort of
the soldier was not considered to be particularly important; more so was the
need to preserve the uniform. Indeed, in many cases, the tunic lasted longer
than the soldiers, as evidenced by the wartime re-issue of tunics of those
soldiers who had died in hospitals.
Source and
pictures : http://www.ir63.org/index.php?page=48
[*2] Heeresbericht of 4th June 1915:
Östlich Givenchy
gelang es gestern abend englischen Truppen, in unsere Stellung einzudringen,
ein Gegenangriff warf den Feind unter schweren Verlusten wieder hinaus. Drei
englische Maschinengewehre blieben in unserer Hand. Die Stellung ist lückenlos
in unserem Besitz.
To the east
of Givenchy the English troops managed to infiltrate our positions. A
counter-attack drove them back again, with the enemy suffering many casualties.
Three English machineguns were captured. Our positions remain firmly in our possession.
http://www.stahlgewitter.com/15_06_04.htm
The original letter:
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