Letters from Fred Leslie Biddle to his Mother, 1916-1917, Part 17 of 24

France 
7  .1 . 17 
Dear Mother, 
Just a few lines to let 
you know I am still going strong. 
I haven't had any mail from you 
since I last wrote, but mails are a bit 
irregular lately. No doubt they'll turn up 
in time. 
The Xmas puddings sent by you & from 
Aunt Fanny arrived today. A bit late for 
Xmas perhaps, but not by any means too late 
to be eaten. 
Many thanks for them & please thank 
Aunt Fanny for me. 
Life here is rather dull still, & in  
that respect like the weather. 
We will all be pleased to see the sun 
shine, when it comes again 
I have had several letters from Hollis 
since he landed in France en route to England 
He seems to be chirpy, but has been 
bothered a bit by boils.

(2) 
I am hoping to have leave very shortly 
in order to go across & see him. 
I find myself very stuck for news 
to tell you. We have settled down for 
the Winter & each day is simply a repetition 
of the day before. No doubt what is an 
ordinary matter of routine to us would be 
very interesting to you, but there the censorship 
comes in & prevents me writing the 
bits that are interesting 
I can only tell you that we have  
a tremendous superiority over the Hun 
in artillery now. At a guess I should say 
we fire 10 rounds to every one from him. 
& ammunition is plentiful. In fact it 
is pushed at us, & that's a bit different from 
Gallipoli, I can assure you. 
Forbes, Dodd & Strahan have just been 
awarded the Military Cross. They have 
done very good work, especially Dodd 
who deserves two, & we are all delighted 
that Strahan will have it to cheer him on 
his way to recovery. 
He is making splendid progress 

(3) 
He may possibly be able to come back. 
In some cases officers who have lost an 
eye are allowed to do so, but of course a  
gunner wants two. 
A training brigade is being formed 
in England & he might be posted to that 
as an instructor. I don't think he is 
anxious to return home till the war is 
over 
I am enclosing 3 copies of a weekly 
magazine which is just commencing. 
It isn't very brilliant but as you can  
imagine production of a newspaper in  
the field isn't exactly easy. 
Some of the jokes are not understandable 
except to us. For example the par on the  
Isle of Man in No 1. The point of that is, 
that after it appeared in orders that men 
going on leave to the Isle of Man were to  
have an extra day (for (travelling), there were a  
tremendous number of men who found they 
had relatives there. 
The 'poem' on "Activity was normal" was  
written by Cohen of Vic Field Arty Fame.

4 
'Comic Cuts' mentioned in the last line 
is a very solemn summary of "intelligence" 
i.e. official information 
Germane (it should be Germaine, but the   
printer hadn't any i's left) is beautifully 
true to life. 
I hope all are well at home & 
especially that you have picked up a lot 
in health. 
Best wishes to all friends & love to all 
relatives 
Best love to all at home. 
Your affectionate son 
Fred

[*PP.S Arthur Patterson's hamper hasn't arrived. It must have gone down in the Arabia Fred*] 

20/1/17 
Dear Mother, 
Here we are again & if I can 
manage to hold the pen I'll give you what news I 
can. 
Well in the first place the Xmas box & the puddings  
including the one from Aunt Fanny arrived safely, & 
the contents have been well disposed of & topped off  
with the cigars from Father. The Handkerchiefs from 
Noel, socks from Isabel, & candle lamp from you 
are very useful & arrived at just the right time 
& all came into use at once. I have plenty of kit 
but it is impossible to wash & dry underclothes here. 
There is an excellent system when troops get back 
in reserve. The men go in one door, take off clothes 
hand in valuables. The uniform is cleaned & pressed 
& the underclothes are thrown into baskets, also dirty towels. 
After the bath they go into another room, get clean 
underclothes & socks & then go on & find the uniform 
cleaned, small rents darned, & nicely pressed. If 
the clothes are too bad, they get others. Of course it isn't 
new stuff but it's clean & in good order. Enormous staff 
of girls & huge laundries are constantly going full

(2) 
pressure. We don't get the benefit from this  
washing scheme that the infantry do. 
They are never more than 10 days at a time in  
the forward lines whilst we may stay in 6 or 8 
weeks. Still it's O.K. to be able to get a boil-up 
when we do get out. 
We are back a little at present but only for a 
few days re-organising into 6 gun batteries & reducing 
the number of brigades accordingly. Then in we go again, so we 
are pretty busy. 
We have had lots of snow lately. It's pretty 
stuff in pictures & on Xmas cards, but rotten stuff in 
war. & hasn't helped the mud problem a bit. Our 
unfortunate horses are always up to the hocks in mud & 
its pitiful to see them. The mud here sticks like glue 
& cannot be brushed out because the horses go mad, 
with the pain of the pulling on the hair. When we get  
a chance we crush the mud with the pincers & so powder 
it. You can imagine the job. It's pretty heartbreaking
for the drivers who are certainly having by 
far the worst time in France at present. The infantry 
is a King's life to theirs.

(3) 
The unfortunate drivers have to get supplies 
of all kinds up by pack-horse at night & slave 
all day in the mud to save their horses. 
The astonishing thing is that the Australian 
horses are the only ones that stand up to the work 
& the cold. The English & Canadian remounts go to  
pieces in a week. 
But the remarkable thing is that despite the 
mud & miserable conditions we all look remarkably 
well & beyond a few colds & the older men getting a 
bit rheumaticy everybody looks as fit as ever. 
I read father's little bit about the cowards, shirker's 
traitors & murderers who defeated conscription to  
some of the other fellows. I read it out to among 
others Byrne, Gavan-Duffy, Doherty. O'Gorman, 
Delaney & they were delighted with the fact that 
the Fenians were included. 
However there's no doubt he is right about the 
crowd that beat the referendum. They're a lovely 
lot, but I think the idea that the R.C. vote was 
against it is quite wrong

(4) 
Mannix doesn't represent the R.C. feeling at all. 
You ought to hear the feeling of the fellows whose 
names I have given you as regards Mannix. They 
hate the name of the fellow & reckon it's the worst 
thing that ever happened that he came out. 
Well you seem to have had a lovely time 
with floods & coal-strikes. There's no doubt there's  
a rotten element being developed in Australians & we 
see some of it here occasionally. Unfortunately 
England is pretty full of blatherskites who call themselves
Anzacs but have never been there or anywhere 
else, where there's any danger. 
I have had several letters from Hollis & expect 
to see him in England at the end of the month if 
I've any luck. 
Hope the building trade is moving a little bit & 
that something will turn up soon. 
Well I can't feel the pen any longer for the cold. 
Hope you can decipher this scrawl but I can't do better. 
Love to all. & many thanks to Aunt Fanny for her plum 
duff. 
Best love & thanks for the Xmas pcl to all at home 
especially your own dear self, your affectionate son 
Fred