1 1/6/12 July 26th 1916 B.E.F. My dear Cooty, I am fit & well but slightly fatigue, we came
out of the line yesterday morning. After 16 days severe fighting;
so of course we are what you call slightly depleted. We went into the line on the 8th & did an attack on the 14th,
a real good one, everything went A1, & it was a great
success. I went down the night before to see where I would
dig in before the attack & the place where we had to go to
was alive with bursting shells, so I was a little nervous
as to how many I would lose before I got dug in. On the evening of the 13th, we went down & there was hardly
a shell bursting & we got dug in without losing a man, which
put all their tails up, we had a lot of fatiguing work
previous to the attack, making forward dumps of string etc.
a very trying time for the men & officers, but they did A1
& their discipline was real good & the Brigadier complimented
us on the good job of work we had done. The attack was most
successful; our bombardment was terrific, & the 1st line
trench of the Germans was completely blotted out, the prisoners
said they had only been in the trenches half an hour & when
it commenced, they were held by the Fusiliers of the Prussian
2 friend; we also captured a village, & a German General
with his staff. We came in waves, & moved up & dug in
just behind the German 1st line, but were not required to
go into the fight. On the 19th we were back just behind, & next
day I was sent up to take over, a rather famous wood &
village attached to another Bn. We had rather rough passage
going in, as we managed to get in the way of some shells, there
was quite a lot knocking about. I took over from 4 B so it
was a difficult relief, but we got through. My H. Q. was an
enormously deep dry and cozy, about 40 ft. under
ground. We had a very strenuous time there as we had
practically to dig the line, & there was a bit of scrapping between
patrols. Most of the fighting is really done now between the guns,
the Hun has undoubtedly amassed a great number of guns along
the point, & we have an enormous number too. We were very glad
to come out & got out safely, just as we were starting a shell burst
almost at our feet & that was the only one near us. We got out about 5 a.m. & I came on after two hours rest, & we have
pitched up about 5 miles behind the line. We don’t quite know what
we are going to do yet, but I hope we are going back for a rest & a refit.
After sixteen days you lose so many specialists, that the wheels of
your organisation begin to creak a bit, & we want a real rest very badly.
Good luck to you all at home. I saw Pinney this morning, & asked after
Bob B.C., he said he was a splendid chap, & doing very well. Pinney
3 commands the 3rd Div., a Bantam lot. Give my love to Julia, I had a letter from the old man, & he has
sent me 50 cigars & some Brandy is on the way.
The perfect rest after just getting out is something you can cannot
understand if you have not experienced it. Yours, Dick 4 photograph 5 photograph