IN THE TRENCHES IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2501, 30 June 1915, Page 9

IN THE TRENCHES IN FRANCE

SERGEANT'S LETTER. HOME. Sergeant H. W. Winter, of the King's Liverpool Regiment, in the course of a letter to his people at Manakau, writes as follows from the front in France: — "March 21. "Just a few lines before we go into the trenches ajjain, 48 hours in and 48 hours out. Twice we liave been in, but with the Regulars, a finer and jollier lot of chaps I have never met. Now we occupy the trenches ourselves, so we have to keep' the Germans at bay now, and I think our chaps will do that, as we will lave revenge for the chaps we have lost out of our battalion. At night is the time, ae we never know when they will make an attack, so we have what they call a listening post, which we depend on for our safety. We are at it all night long when we are in the trenches—making our trenches safe, bullets flying right and left, all the time. "The last time we were in the trenches we were only 80 yards away from the Germans, and they shelled our trenches, but very little damage was done. I shall never forget it —most of us thought our birthday had come, but, thank God, I came through all right iii the trench with my section, barring one of the Regulars, who was shot clean through the right eye, but we brought him round all right. I happened to have some brandy, so they burked him up until he was carried from tho trench. Before we entor the trenches we are covered with grease to keep the cold out, plenty of hot tea, and rum. I must say the Government and tho people of England are looking after us splendidly. 'Ihe weather here is splendid. "April 3. "We left for trenches 27/3/15, and arrived back 31/3/15, 105J hours in all we did by the time we arrived back to our resting place, which we arrived at at 3 o'clock in the morning. Well, we are on our day's rest again, and we need it too. At it all the time in the trenches, watching the Germans and building new dug-outs and places we have to sleep in. It gets very cold at nights. Wo are moving from here on Monday, n/4/15, and going further up the line. I will not be sorry when it is ail over, but we are enjoying ourselves very much. The noise of the bullets whizzing past and shells bursting we do not take much notice of now as we have got used to it. Tho only danger is those snipers—they are terrors. A few have been caught, and you can imagine what sort of a reception they got. Have just, received '100 cigarettes from Elder Dempsters, so I have plenty now. I am at present in tho pink of condition, plenty of warm clothes, and they are feeding us all right."