Prellbock, 24 June 1915
[Thursday]
Dear
family,
Finally I
have time to write to you. Since my last letter I haven’t received any from
you, but I did receive a whole load of parcels, with numbers up to 176, and one
with Kuchen. Also one from Anna and one from Hartmut. I’ll send Hartmut a nice
picture postcard for his album in the next few days.
The new
shoes have also arrived. Many thanks for everything.
So the shoes
didn’t take as long to arrive as I had expected. They fit perfectly, even
better than my old ones. Now I have something nice on my feet again. Before
anything they’re nice and high, ankle-height. That’s always the problem with
army-shoes: they’re too low and don’t quite fit well at the top. So the shoes
are perfect. I won’t be wearing my boots anymore now. You won’t believe how hot
your feet get in them.
The 4 days
of rest are now over thankfully. This time they weren’t of much use to us.
Every day they had programmed shooting exercises, marching etc for us, we hardly had time to get any rest.
The only highlight was: we’ve been swimming yesterday morning. And I can tell
you: that was a blast!
Unfortunately
I have to note that I had unlearned a lot. We’ve established a place to swim
not far from here. The next time we’ll go to an even nicer one. By the way: it
was the first time in the 5 months as a soldier that I had an opportunity to
swim. [*1]
Here on
this section of the front it’s quiet again. When anyone tells you otherwise you
should not believe that. Everything I write you is always the truth. I know
e.g. that there’s a story doing the rounds in Barmen, about a backpack which
was completely destroyed by a piece of shrapnel. I’ve already heard it over
the telephone too. That story is a fabrication from A to Z, so that you know.
I don’t
understand why this certain young man is writing home such fairytales. Maybe it’s
because then he’ll get sent more from home? I’m writing you this to make sure
you don’t worry unnecessarily, and maybe think that what I’m writing is not the
truth.
I think you
can guess who that young man was. He is the one who participated in the Lorettoschlacht some time ago. [See
Fritz’s letter # 49 of 3rd June 1915]
Then
yesterday I received a letter from Hans [Heynsche]. He advised me that Leutnant Stennes had written to him. What
do you make of that letter from Leutnant Souchay?
I myself would be thoroughly ashamed to send such a piece of junk, especially
to people I don’t know.
Then – I totally
forgot – I received a parcel from Aunt Lise. Please thank her from me.
With many
warm greetings your Fritz
[*1] A Badeanstalt
of the 13th Division, location unknown.
The original
letter:
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