WITH INTEREST.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15489, 17 January 1916, Page 2

WITH INTEREST.

POUNDING THE GERMANS. LETTER FROM LIEUTENANT HUMPHRIES. Writing from the trenches in Flanders under date of November 30th, Lieutenant Cecil Humphries, of the Manchester Regiment, who is wellknown in Christchurch, says: Your big, newsy letter arrived at a most dramatic time. We were having a two hours' "hate" by artillery, and the noise was helped on'by aerial torpedoes, mines, bombs, rifle grenades, and all the other inventions -to stop one another breathing well. I cannot picture to you what all this means, but the noise, why, it is terrific. Poor old "Fritz," he is just getting back with real good interest some of the, awfulness that wo had to put up with at the first of the war. You need not be afraid of John Bull, being asleep now, he has at 'last started -to growl, and our guns seem to say as they growl, "Munitions, munitions." The way things have improved since 1 was last here is simply marvellous; plenty of evejything at our disposal, and no limits put on bombs or any of the other devices that this method of warfare has brought into vogue. What a fine feeling it is to hear our guns day after day growing louder and louder, as if the bulldog was growing more angry every day. As regards our aeroplanes, we have simply got the air to ourselves, and if a Boche' happens to put in an appearance, he :s watched as if some strange and stray bird had come in amongst us. The part of the line I am in now —well, to tell you the truth, I am writing this .letter to>you sitting in a German dug-out that was captured in. our advance of September 25th last. ThiS" plafco is just one sea of" trenches. As wo are dug in in the chalk, with a coating of mud and chalk over us, you can jguess we are a queer-looking colour. The weather is bitterly cold, but frost is not so bad; it is the rain that makes things get into such an awful mess. As "usual the Government'is doing all in its power for the comfort of "Tommy," and this winter Wo havo rubber boots reaching to our hips. They keep lis dry, but are very, very cold. Frbstbite or "trenchfeot," has been pretty bad already, but plenty of whale oil and some new anti-frostbite preparation keeps us from the ravages of the cold fairly well, and as the "Tommy" says, if "Fritz" can stick it. so can we. Every day now we bombard the enemy from his front lino "to his billets in* the rear. We term these little bursts "frightfulness," "his strafe," and "hate." Yesterday was the "Little Willie's" birthday. Ido riot know whether we were trying to show how wo had grown since November, but our "hato" yesterday was the most severe I have listened to. The enemy only replied with a few pip-squeaks and whiz-bangs. In this sector our trenches are all named.- and sign-posts, just the same as at the cross roads, arc met everywhere. One notice rather amused me to-day. It read: "Do not congregate round this place, as it is dangerous." As if- the other places are quite safe! The trench the Germans are in. in front of us to-night is called "Big Willie," or, as the Kaiser terms it, "his iron wall," vhicli the British will knock themselves to ... pieces i against. Wait and see.