Letters from the Belgian Front.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 20 August 1915, Page 3

Letters from the Belgian Front.

By favour of Mr Tom Black, formerly of this town, we have been priviledged to read two letters from his brother, No. 9912 Pte. Geo. Black,'2nd Highland Light Infantry, who is with the British Army near Ypres. Private Black lias been at the front practically ever since the war began, having bad a respite of only a month when he was wounded in the neck. His letters are descriptive of life in the trenches and especially of one week end when the unit with which he was, was fighting the whole time. The description is very illuminating, and while reading, one can almost see the men, when charging, rushing from shelter to shelter, dodging into holes made by shells, crawlthrough hedges, lying for hours in mud and water and general discomfort waiting for a favourable time to move, and then the final great rush, when the order is given to charge, and the gallant men rise up and run madly on the German trenches, sometimes to victory, often to defeat, loss and even death. Pte. Black describes the awful effect this dreadful experiences have on the nerves of the soldiers and says that they are in the trenches four days and in reserve four days, and so for sixteen days, and then they are taken away for eight days spell, and so o # n. Even under these conditions, the strain is often too much, and men go stark staring mad. From the tone of Pte. Black’s letter, it is evident that the British Tommy has a great opinion of both the Russian and the French soldier, and that he regards the issue of the war as depending very largely on the supply of ammunition.