1 April 23, 1916 My dearest Mother I have not been
able to wirte any letters for some
dayes as there has been so much
to attend to & now I have several
to answer so excuse a rather
hurried line. We are back again in the Line, but this time
we have only taken over part of what
we held before & unfortunately
for my Comp we have not got that
same comfortable billet. None
of any kind were available so
we were put into tents in a
wood from which we can just
see the German Lines. We moved
up on Thurs. & were lucky enough
to get a fine day, for the ground
was in an awful state &
it was not till late in the evg. 2 that the tents were pitched & we
were able to get some food cooked,
while in addition we had of course
to take over the gun positions & c.
Since then & for days before it has
rained incessantly & we know
had a very miserable time of it.
Tthe trenches too were in a
horrible condition. This is the
first day I have had dry feet &
clothes since we left our billets.
It was impossible to get anything
dried - even the tents leaked -
but thank goodness today is
fine & we have been able to
spread things out to dry. I think I may be permitted to
tell you that we had a fairly
lively demonstration against
the Germans last night. My
guns were very busy & it 3 was a sight I shall never forget.
I was at the point with 2 guns
where I could see most of the
ground. We were standing in
water & it was pouring but the
excitement of it all made me
forget all discomforts & I
would not have missed it for
anything. I had no casualties
but hope the guns made a good many With this move
mails have been a little disorganised
that is to say as regards parcels
but I expect they will begin
to arrive again tomorrow.
Would you please tell Malcolmson
to repeat the trimmed bacon they
sent in our parcel. It was
excellent, in fact I think you
might tell them to include a
bit in each parcel. I got 4 your letter of 18th yest but am
afriad dear Mother I must
acknowledge that I could not
read the part you crossed. A phone message had just come from Bde. & I must
go off at once. Sending love to all
your loving son James. A letter just came from
K. but have not time to
read it now. 5 On Active Service dated 23 rd Wed. of May 1916 Mrs. S.C. Davidson
Seacourt
Bangor
Co Down
Ireland