Private F Woodard, 1st 5th Bedfordshire Regiment

I am just writing in a few spare moments a letter to you from the trenches on behalf of the old boys. We have just been out here three weeks yesterday, and during our time here we have had some experiences of what war is like. Well our first was on the Friday after we landed, we were digging trenches under heavy shell and bullet fire, when one of the boys got wounded by shrapnel: it was Albert Markham. We, the boys, happened very lucky on Sunday 15th August, as we were on guard in the trenches when or battalion went into action and made a fine bayonet charge, when they captured a hill and drove the Turks a good distance back. We afterwards re-joined the battalion and helped them to hold the hill until the next Sunday, when we were relieved. The next week passed off rather quietly when we were on fatigue work at the base when we came across Sidney Sawyer and P C King late of St Neots. After this we moved back to the trenches again to a different position, where we still remain, and getting on comfortable, except the heat and the flies, they are enough to eat us: also it is very cold at night. All the boys are pretty fair excepting one or two of them who are a bit queer, being overtaken by the heat. W. Pope is with me while writing this letter. He had a narrow escape the other day whilst fetching water, as a shrapnel bullet entered his rifle and smashed all the wood where it hit.