Letters of Gerard Henderson Cowan, 1916-1917 - Part 6

did you receive those post cards     
of Africa, I sent them about the
same time as that letter was
Peter gave me a couple of letters
to read and I see by them that
Joc & Lyn Percy has been wounded
and has won the Military Cross
also Mrs Gees eldest son is missing.
I am sorry to hear the latter.
Uncle Ernest sent me a fine
big parcel of eatables a
couple of of days ago and we
have lived well ever since.
I see by Gracie's that letter take
that Charlie has just been over on
leave but has returned to France
I wish I knew his address as I might
have an opportunity of looking him
up. 
Well love to all
Gerard.
G.H. Cowan
3DRL 3660 (1)

France
Sept 8^th
1917
Dear Machell,
This is an answer to your
letter of the 28^th of January, which has
only just come to hand. It has apparently
come to the battalion a couple of
times and for some reason or other they
have sent it back to the base post office
However it eventually turned up
which is the main thing.   
No I didn't think those photos were a
very good likeness, myself, but had
no time to have any more taken
before I left W.A.
As I have told you before I did not
like England very much in winter
time, it was too cold, but I would
like to have seen it in summer
time I know it would be a
different country altogether 

However as it is now the 9^th of 
Sept and my leave will not come
for a couple of months or more
I am afraid my chances of seeing it
this summer are small unless
I get a Blighty.
There is a possibility of getting four
days leave in Paris. I would not
mind paying Gay Paris a visit it
would be worth while.
No, certainly, I would not mind
receiving that letter with the snap
in it, be sure and send it along.
Please excuse this awful scrawl
kindest ^ regards to Cecil and Mr and Mrs Hungerford
I remain
Yours truly
Gerard. H. Cowan 

Nelson Ward
2^nd S. Gen
Red Maids Sec.
Bristol
1/10/17
Dear Dad,
As you all know long
before this reaches you I have
been slightly wounded and
have had the luck to be sent
to ‘Blighty’. Now that I am in
Blighty I can write a decent
letter and give some account
of my travels since I left
England in the beginning of 

May 2^nd
May. We entrained at Amesbury
and travelled all night, we arrived
at Folkestone early next morning
and there went on board small
fast steamers, with an escort
of destroyers we raced across
the channel, doing the trip
to Boulogne in an hour and
a half.
On arrival there we marched through
the town to a rest camp on
the outskirts where we spent the
night and all next day resting.
On Friday we left camp at
about 10 am and marching
all day, except for an hour at
dinner time, we arrived
at Etaples about 5 pm that
afternoon. The march was
from 14 to 18 miles and though
marching with full pack
did not feel it much as we
had not then been issued
with, rifle, ammunition, and
tin hat. These we got at Etaples
on Saturday. On Sunday we
marched to the 'bullring',
a place where all training
is carried out, and after
having a lecture on gass
and gass helmets we went 

through an underground
dugout filled with Fritzs'
gass, This training is of course
to give you confidence in
the helmets and get the men
used to them. Monday we entrained
and started on our way up
to the line. I might mention
here that the French engines
and rolling stock are the queerest
I have ever seen. Well we
travelled all day and passed
through Amiens on our
journey arriving at a town 

(5)
called Albert. You probably
remember having seen a
a picture of a church tower
which had been shelled by
the Germans. On top of
the tower is a statue of
the Virgin holding out
the child at arms length,
ever this statue has fallen
over but is held by the
base to the top of the tower
and remains there stretched
^out still holding the child
out over the town 

well to get get back to my
story, we were marched to
a rest camp and after
drawing iron rations and
biscuits we were issued with
another gas helmet called the
box helmet and had to go through
gas again, this time mostly tear
gas which smells like pineapples.
This being finished we started
to march up to join our
unit a. Our road lay over;
some fifteen or twenty
miles of the Somme Battlefield
and through Fricourt and
Contalmaison, where the
first push was made by the
British after the Germans
had been brought to a standstill.
At Fricourt the Germans
had dug their trenches
right through the cemetry.
Of cours there places were
only in name there was
not one brick left standing
on another and the place
was a mass of shell holes 

and mine craters, an
a more desolate wilderness
one can't imagine.
Well we marched to where
the village Bazantiem
Le Petit had once stood,
and camped there for the
night and eventually
remained there a couple
of days instead of resuming
our march next morning.
While here we were a had any
amount of time in which to
roam round and examine
the old battlefields, which   

are of course left just
as they where were when
the scene of conflict moved
forward. All the paraphanilia
of war, rifles ammunition
shells of every size and
description bombs bayonets
and tin hats etc strewed
every where amongst the
shell holes. There were
also several t tanks which
we had any amount of
time to examine, wonderful
affairs they are they will
crawl over almost any
kind of country, out of