Jones, Oscar Anglesey (Captain, b.1892 - d.1917), letters - Part 9

August 1^st

In the Trenches

 

Dear Mother,

I'm sending this

in with one of our officers

who has been wounded, & is

being evacuated. We are

having a hot time, but not

very many casualties in our

Coy. I had a go with a

German patrol last night

& we came off best.

I have seen some awful

sights lately but you can

guess how things are from

the casualty lists. We have

the Germans beaten here as

regards infantry, but they

plug us with artillery in

the front line. Our

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artillery tears up their trenches 

so that is one consolation

Gilbert Eaton went away

with shell shock.

The old boys have done

remarkably well at stretcher

bearing. I have not seen

Reg Temple as he is on the

other end of our line from me,

but Will Clemens & Gilbert

Eaton are immense & as

game as one can find

anywhere. B & d can be proud

of those lads. Under the

heaviest fire I have ever seen

they have done their work &

never once held back.

Well Mum, This is all

the news this time so I

shall close. Trusting all

at home are well, I remain

Your loving son

Oscar

Will write a letter 

when we come out in a day or so.

Somewhere in France

August 9th

 

Dear Mother,

at last I am able to sit down &

write comfortably. We are out of the line now,

and will be back for a couple of weeks or so; then

at it again.   Looking back over the last fortnight

I often wonder how it was that we got through

so well.  It was hell on earth out there

and nothing less.  One cannot write their impressions

of the scene for it is impossible to describe,

or convey any idea of what it was really like

in a letter.  We shall very likely go

through the same things again & see the same

sights, but it will just be a repetition of

the first.  It cannot be any worse.

Frenchmen say that Verdun is no worse

than what we were in so try & gauge

from that & you will then begin to realise

perhaps slightly what the boys are going

through.  I do not feel like writing

of the things I saw out there, for now we are

away from it, we try and forget, or at least

not discuss an action which has such awful

connections & bitter memories. Good men have

answered the last roll call; personal friends

among them. It is to be; so we bow our

heads & vow; that if needs be we will go to

death as well.  Two men of my platoon

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have been killed & about right wounded

Our coy has been fortunate. The most fortunate

in the Brigade, but perhaps next time the

position will be reversed and we will suffer

However they did their job right down to the

letter, and were lucky that is all. A cousin

of Jack Jarvie was killed. One of the Browns

from Sugarloaf creek also Bob Horwood.

The Brd boys doing stretcher bearers work

are all heroes. They played the game to the

very top.  Just before entering the line

I received the birthday parcel and it has

come in handy. I am wearing the underwear

now. It is real good.  I also dropped

you a note in which I said that I

was going with another coy. That did

not eventuate. At first it was proposed

to put two coys only into the fire &

as they were short of officers I was

asked to go in with D. Coy. A few

minutes after I had sent your letter

word came through that all Coys would go

in and so I went with my own platoon.

I must thank you very much

for the snap of Gla & yourself, it is

very nice and I am proud of it.

It is carried in my old wallet

that Ivor once owned. A sort of

pocket book affair. It is rather

damaged now, but will remain with me

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till this war is over.

My batman got wounded in the

foot and hand, nothing serious. The

last I heard of him was that he

was cussing and yelling to the others

to make up for him.  I shot four

Germans one day; Two in the morning &

two in the evening. Arthur Patch is

alright, also Dick Palmer who is in

the same Battn as Arthur. I was

speaking to Reg Temple & the ^latter this

morning.  Jim Foster is in the

8^th Battn. Walter Bruce was

wounded. Gilbert Eaton shell shock.

Bill Clemens wounded (not serious)

I have not had any trace

of my cousins since coming over here, but

this is a big front and they may

be anywhere.  The night we

went in my platoon was shelled

while crossing an open road. They

had to lay close to the side of the

bank & "Gee whiz" was'nt it warm.

Thought the whole lot of us would

be blown sky high, but my luck held

good. I had my head behind a

sugar bag ^ that was filled with rations for the

morning and I can tell you it was

very little comfort to me. However it is

all in the game and one has some

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thrills for their money.

The Italians & Russians seem

to be doing well along their respective

fronts & that is good news for

the sooner Austria is crushed the better

it shall be for us. Along where

we are it will always be stubborn

fighting and the war may last

anything up to one year more,

beyond that I do not think it will

go. In the counter attacks

against our Brigade a lot of the

Germans threw their hands up when

half way over and gave themselves

up, so that does not speak much

for the morale of the Huns along

this part of the line.

They seemed in pretty fair

condition; war worn certainly but

that is only natural, yet quite happy

to be prisoners. The man had

been 30 days in a xx the front

line & 5 days in a dugout, buried

there. he scratched his way out &

came down under escort.

Well Mum I think this

is all this time so I will close

Trusting all at home are well

& to hear from you soon.

Your loving Son

Oscar

 

Somewhere in France

August 12th

Dear Mother,

I cannot say when I shall be able

to get this letter away, but on the off chance

that it may be possible at any time

it is always best to be ready.

At the present time we are back

near the line again, having to do some

salvage work. The rest of the

division have gone back to the rest

area, but as far as we are

concerned there is little chance of doing

that, and I suppose that we will

be here by when they come back again

and then go on with them into another

scrap. Things are going fairly

well along here just now and we have the

Germans well beaten in our sector; of course

it only means that he falls back a

little way to new defence lines and we

have to smack him up there & then

go forward again. It is the only

 

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way to win. It is a case of pounding

his defences to atoms & then chase

him out of them. He then in turn

bombards his old lines which have been

taken from him & are now manned by

us; so you can guess what it must

be like after both sides have wrangled

over it. We are top-dogs now & he

must take all that is handed out

to him as best he can.

The place we are billeted in

now has had some heavy shelling

especially the chapel. I have some

post-card views of it & will try to

get them posted. It will give you

some idea of how things are going

or have gone around these parts

since the war began.

I saw a German letter card

to-day that had been picked up on

the battlefield & in it the writer

said that eggs were 7½ each in

Berlin & Pozen so things are

getting pretty bad over on their

 

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side of the line. The German

infantry that we came in contact

with seem a very poor lot as

far as soldierly ability is concerned

& although they appear alright

otherwise. I believe some of them

were very young; but it is a hard

thing to determine a mans age

after he has been in a bombardment

for most men have a weary war-worn

look that makes a big

difference in their appearance.

I saw about Forty of them

coming in yesterday with two machine

guns. They had to carry their own

guns & march along as prisoners'

It must have been mortifying to

do it. Nothing is too hard

for the Brits though & they get

very little sympathy. They are

great believers in deep dug-outs

and in one place they had an

underground hospital with four

entrances. Of course the

 

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place was not been used as

an hospital when we got there

it was Just the reverse & it

took several bombs to get them

out of it. Had to put in a 

smoke bomb & smoke them out in

the end. I think there were about

forty men taken prisoners from

there. They were not

sorry when we took them prisoners

and seem to be glad that

all danger is over for them.

It is raining a little

this morning, but the weather

has been very good lately & we

are fortunate that it is so.

My valise arrived last 

night & I was very glad as

we had very few clothes with

us. Of course when we go

into the line we take very

little, the less the better as it

is a case of ducking & dodging

over all sorts of shell torn