News from the Front

Levin Daily Chronicle, 28 August 1917, Page 2

News from the Front

A jn-XTOl! .\MKk\ALD LETTMR. .'i'r,- Is. A. McDonald, of r>evin, has recci- •••<! two mo-'t iitttjrtutiMg letter From her -on, lie.' written from the 1 I'r: lit. .-aid mi.' written from iio.spita' in .Kit;.'l:ii:<l. The first, 1 iter, dated Sunday. lOtli June, runs:--Deaf Mother. The first stage anyhow c.f the groat battle just comnien- ' cer| ;s over, and your hopeful is still ' an active memher of the forces. We, a,s you will have learnt long ere this reache.s you. took Mo««ine<i on Tbursday morning. The village itself is now wha.t would he called in tlie Bible ''an abomination of Desolation." Xnt a stone upon a stone unless it is sideways. It is situated on a ridge that I resemble- in many respects the rising ground that runs from Tixo' Tiro roarl I round throu'jrh our place to 'Mr Palmes at Arap'ieaae —a sort- of a half moon with us originally in tlie centre, and (lie I [uu looking down from all dirocI Hons. Since the battle though we 1 have all the commanding ground', and [ we can now look for miles ahead over country s»s level as the country you s" > !• < king toward-; Oliau. The st'itit | m,other dear, «tis one wild hursi of excitement and the first part l at any rate baffles description. The , guns opened up at daylight, with us I all readv to climb out oF the ditches. As soon as they opened up the whole i earth seemed to do a sort of cakewaik t walk, and f began to think of a-llthe L' !i".'-in things f liad done through life: 1 hut 't wasn't we that were going up, 1 it was 1' ritz. with mines that out sapl 'Ts had put under his postions. Then, a= soon as the earth had come down and tacked itself on to- the little hit of territory that had .stood still, over we went. One battalion was -about a l.ui-dre l yards in front of us when we started, hut wo caught them up as wo left the first line. T .saw a Fritz for the first time about then, but the boys never gave him any time much to nnke make preparation for his departure for the happy .sniping ground. 1 Xot mneb could be seen through the ; battle drift. We kept on going, but fairly .slow, because troops must allow the enemy the privilege of catching shells on the full. Whenever we noticed that we were getting under our own shell fire we would sit down in a shell-hole and have a smoke and -a yarn. As soon as it moved on we would go on again. At tlWo top o • the hill the battalion that had gone over ahead of us. hut with whom we ; then were, stopped, and we went on alone. We began to get under heavy mnolmie-gmi fire from Hans and 1 Co. ' about here, as we were just reaching .Mossin-e-- and the enemy bad some •strong concrete positions. One of our companies stopped and dug in here, and T had a spell for a minute or two with them while our guns gjave tlie town a final doing. Tom and Jack Campion were with this lot, and while we were talking up came a Hun; but war had no more joys l'<fr him. He was an out and out pacifist, peace at put our rifles up, up went his hands any price gentlman; for as soon as we put our rifles up, up went his hands. I had intended getting someone, but hen I sa-,\- the iook on his face the heart '.tent out of me, and 1 handed him over to another, chap to takeV hack as a prisoner. I left this company then, and made towards where I kniijw our own boys were going to. An | as going to the left I had the pleasure (it wasn't much) of getting a machine gun played for my sole benefit. as ! was alone for the time being, lb n 1 cast strategy to the winds, and •Xauinai at his; best couldn't have gone fater than I did to a depression that had been a sort of a. small lake or pond. Hy going along that T came to a hvi'-k wall Call that was left of what had been a house. Behind this were several more of my mates, and we commenced to reply as best We could to our opponents, who wore play in <r the machine gun on the wall, which had several big holes in it that had been made by shells. He had evidently followed me in my meteoric flight.' Some of our artillery got on to our friends about here, and administered the K.O. .From then we moved on to our objective, amf all we could see was Fritz making for hishe'oved Fatherland. As they bolted. J did some shooting, but never landed any. Tf that's what tiiey call strategical retirement, it was pretty hasty and not too much plan about it. e dug in in front of the town, and soon received artillery fire from the Hnn--and then you should have seen the dirt fly! There we're two of us from Levin with our platoon r -Jack (-ordon-Glassford and I, and we are thinking of taking up nawying as a profession if we get back. There's money in it, I'm sure, if someone will fire the gun. Tlrest' Tliesc are a few incidents that be I me: of course different chaps in different- parts doubtless had the same only more perhaps. . . . Jack Glassford and I are sleeping together out in the open paddock. We haveno blankets, but mv mate got a Hun overcoat and I got one of thwV oil j s.loots : so we are good oh.