TUAKAU.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 236, 19 December 1916, Page 3

TUAKAU.

Writing to his father, Mr J. Collins, of Tuakau, under date of Oct. 12th from "France," Pvt. Sydney Collins gives an account of his experiences in the Somme advance. He says "I came through the big. tight on Sept. loth safe and still quite well. We are miles back in th« country from the tiring line now and are reorganising and getting straightened up. I have not the slightest idea where we are going next but it can never be worse than we struck it during our month on the Somme. We had three weeks in the trenches under heavy tire and you will have some idea of what wo went through by our casualty list. It was dreadful. The morning we went over the parapet we took tive lines of trenches at the bayonet point. We had a hard time in the trenches, very little sleep and long anxious nights Wo advanced a mile and a half and to see the men going down dead and wounded was very sad but I never got a scratch. I never had a shave or face wash for three weeks on the Somrno. It was hard unough to g*-t drinking water, let alone washing water, and I did not have my clothes oft' for nine weeks. We have our blankets back now and are getting a new uniform, which some of us badly want. We are having a fairly good time now and as we go along we can buy plenty of tomatoes, milk and eggs, whilst apples are plentiful. I took the paper on which I am writing and the envelopes off a dead Hun "