Tag Archive for: Diddington

Private E Irons

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Thank you very much for parcel, everything was lovely. I expect you saw in the paper we had been to visit the German trenches, we were lucky to get all our fellow back. If you had heard the guns you would have been frightened. I was in the front line, some of my mates got killed poor things, a shell burst close against them and buried them. I went to help to get them out. I did not think about the shell fire time I was helping to get them out, my one thought was to get them out. We got them down to the dressing station, but they have since died. We are a long way from the firing line now, having a rest. The French do make us a laugh, some of them can speak English pretty good. We spend a lot of our spare time fishing, as we are close to a canal and there is plenty of fish.

Private Horace Humphrey, 8th Bedfordshire Regiment

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Dear Governess – A last I am writing you the letter I promised when I came away from home. I have all day to myself now, so I spend a lot of time writing. We have not been out of the trenches long, but when we came out for a rest I was picked with some more to go and patrol the frontier. It is easy work and we are in a good billet, but what I don’t like is being away from my regiment. I can hear the guns here, and I know they are under fire while I am right way from it, and the only chance we get of seeing a German is when one or two try and cross the frontier, which is not very often. I should like to tell you what we were doing when the great charge was made, but of course I must not. It was a grand sight. The Huns did not wait to see who was coming, they scrambled out of their trenches and made off behind the town, where they are safe (for a short time though). I went in some of their dugouts, and they were beautiful inside, they had chairs, tables, gas stoves, beds and everything one could wish for, but the men had no heart and gave themselves up rather than fight. In my opinion our village is worth the whole of France put together. I remain one of your boys.