Letters from George Alexander Hugh Murray to his family, 1917 - Part 4

France
3-4-17
All at home
No mail in for some time but I
had a field service card from Les with
only my address in it for he must have
missed to deface the back of it &
sign it. No news of Jim whatsoever
I cannot make out what has happened
to him
We tr are having such lovely weather      
Nothing but frosts snow & rain
with very little sunshine. There has
been a three inch fall of snow
this afternoon but it is not
freezing & in the morning will
nearly all be gone and leave the
place in a terrible  mucky condition
The British are still on the move
dogging the Germans up since they
began to retreat for in today's
(two days old) paper it says that
 

we have captured eight more villages
bringing the full total up to close on
two hundred so things are looking
a bit more like we are winning
but the end seems far off yet.
I am sending a little parcel by this
mail, I hope it will reach you alright
It is close on two years since I
saw Les last, the eventful Sunday
that the Aust. left Egypt to
go for their Baptism of fire & it
is strange that we have not come
across each other before now but
he is in one part of the line
& I in another many miles
separating us
Well I am run out of news
So Au Revoir
From your loving son
George.
 

France
9-4-17
Dear Home folks
I received two letters
from you dated the latter end of
January & I am answering
them straight away as the
Aust mail closes shortly &
I like to have them ready
to go
Well the cold weather has
not gone yet & it is past
Easter but still snow and
sleet is continually falling to
say nothing about the ever
blowing cold wind
Easter Sunday I took a
long walk from the old
battle grounds & through
many of the new

villages that have been captured
& they are simply a mass
of broken bricks heaps of
dirt, & numerous shell holes
for the placess looks as
if a mighty plough had
been at work for miles
on end one cannot walk
on a bit of solid ground
It is a marvellous sight to
see  a mine-crater for to
look  at one, you could
never think man could
invent such things to make
such an enormous hole
for some I have seen
are [[7?]] chains across 
I met Harold Tarrant on
Sunday. He said they had
a bit of a cutting about &
that Andy Taylor got badly
knocked
I am quite well but cannot
 

get any trace of Jim for writing
will not find him. I had a
Post Card from Les
I cannot think of more to
say so I will ring off
From your loving Son & Brother
George.
 

In the field
22-4-17
Dear Lena
I received  the welcome parcel
that you sent me also a letter from
home  & one from Alisa Gann.
I wrote to Bess last week & I
am giving you a turn now but
there is not much to see for one
gets accustomed to the every
day sights, but the poor Huns
have been getting more than their
share of our artillery fire for they
never seem to cease for days on end
and no wonder the poor
chaps gladly give themselves
up but there are some who are
very bitter against us especially
the Prussians for they will always
fight to the last man but the
Saxons are just the reverse
 

2

I suppose by the time you receive
this, you will have heard
about what the German are
doing to their dead. When it
first came out in the papers
no one believed it, but paper
after paper voiced it, so there
must be some truth in it
for it gives the name of the
nearest town & how the
works are carried on.
First of all the dead are stripped
of everything & tied together in
bundles with iron wire &
placed on Railway trucks &
then conveyed to the factory
On arrival the trucks are
run into the building, which
has only one entrance & is surrounded

by electric wires ,the
bundles of bodies are placed tg
on a spiked elevator & carried
through a vapour room, where
 

3

they are disinfected & then carried
along by another elevator to a
monstrous cauldron in to
which they are dropped &
absolutely boiled for about hours
when all the bones & flesh goes
to the bottom & the oil comes
to the top, this is then passed
on to a refinery for to be
clarified, but the flesh
mixed up & (think of it)
given to fatten pigs
Think of it for such a thing
to be done in a civilized
world & by a civilised
nation, well it as too much
to believe but it is a
fact & it  has a is a company
& pays a dividend
This is a nation that is
trying to rule the world why,
they are worse than cannibals
for they know no better
 

4
The weather has taken up at
last for the last few days it
has been lovely weather
The guns are roaring  tonight &
the ground is all a tremble
Well I have nothing much to
say so au Revoir
I am your loving Brother
George
I met one of the Leats who used to
work with Uncle Dan at Abbots.

 

In the field
28-4-17
All at home
I have received no letters from
you since the last ones dated 18-2-17
but I got one from Lena written on
the 22.
It is a treat to be alive to live
in the weather we are having now
for it is continual sunshine from
about six till ten & it is still
far from the longest day on this
side of the globe
Just two years ago by the date 
that I got knocked & at times
I can still feel the effects of
it but all you see is
just where the bullets went
in & out (little red marks).
I have written twice to Les & Jim
since you gave me their address
I had a card from Les but