Just a few hasty lines. I dare say you will have already received my last letter by the time this reaches you. I am still quite well and fit. Hope you are all quite well and cheerful. We had a heavy fall of snow here on Thursday, but it has been grand today. Well by the time you receive this I shall be up at the Front. We are expecting to go up during the next day or two. I will send you the new address as soon as possible. If there is anything on the way for me I shall get it all right, as it will be sent straight up the line to us. I am not allowed to tell you what point of the line we are going to but we have got a very long train ride. I can only tell you that it will be ‘somewhere in France’. I shall write as often as possible but the letters may be a little longer in reaching you. Thanks for the Advertiser enclosed in the parcel; it is nice to read a little news of St Neots. Will you please send it every week, as I like to see news from the old place. Mr ‘Bobby’ Smith is certainly doing his bit in the War by having four sons in service.
Later – We are quite near the firing line now. The guns are roaring night and day. I have seen some splendid air duels, and also seen a few aircraft brought down. It is quite a big competition in air fighting around this district. We had our tobacco issue today; we are well off for smokes out here. This morning too, we had open air Church Parade and I enjoyed the service very much. The band took part in the hymns.
I should have liked to see you all before coming abroad, but as I have said before I could not get away; and as I am now out here I am willing to do my bit with the boys, whatever happens. I will write again when I come out of the trenches.

We have had a very hot time the last few days. We have been shelled very heavily. I have never been in such heavy shell fire before. To make it worse they were nearly all gas shells. They sent us about 153 shells in 33 minutes, and after that they kept it up for several hours. One officer was killed and several wounded, and one man killed. We had orders to leave the place so they all went, but I hung back and stayed with one wounded man, Shells were flying all round, I was the only one anywhere near that I could see, and the poor fellow I was risking my life for, trying to save, died in my arms. He had only been with us 1 ½ hours. I have been recommended for the D.C.M. I shall be home in a fortnights time.

We have had a very hot time the last few days. We have been shelled very heavily. I have never been in such heavy shell-fire before. To make it worse they were nearly all gas shells. They sent us about 153 shells in 33 minutes, and after that they kept it up for several hours. One officer was killed and several wounded, and one man was killed. We had orders to leave the place, so they all went, but I hung back and stayed with one wounded man. Shells were flying all round. I was the only one anywhere near that I could see, and the poor fellow I was risking my life for, trying to save, died in my arms. He had only been with us 1 ½ hours. I have been recommended for the D.C.M. I shall be home in a fortnight’s time.

I am sending you a piece of Hill 70 that we made up in the trenches which I think is very good. If you consider it good enough to go into “The St Neots Advertiser” I should like you to put it in, and please send me one of the papers to show that the Guards are not all “feather bed” soldiers. I can assure you it was a bit hot, like all hell itself and shells burst in our trench and was myself buried twice by them. We shall not get anything so hot again. We lost 25 of our bombers out of 40 in less than 20 minutes. I am glad so many are turning up to answer the call, I think they will be wanted, but we have got them on the run I think. I am glad Mrs C and family are well. Remember me to all the Eaton folks and don’t forget the paper.

The Monday afternoon was well nigh spent,
When across to the trenches the Grenadiers went;
We started off in the grand old style
The Germans shelling us all the while.

Only five oclock ! it was not yet dark
And the German guns ne’er ceased to bark;
But we reached a trench and scrambled inside.
And there for a time we had to hide.

The shells were falling in a solid mass,
And they started using their deadly gas;
But the boys were fairly well equipped,
And over our heads our smoke helmets were slipped.

Then we advanced over an open field,
The shells were falling but we did not yield;
We reach the road we dug ourselves in,
Then for the shells we didn’t give a pin.

The worst of it was it began to rain
But the boys kept at it just the same;
We didn’t care a single toss
For any of the blooming cowardly Bosche.

When the darkness began to fall,
They sent up star shells to reveal us all,
If we’d put up our hands over the parapet,
The snipers would have had us you can bet.

But we knew a trick worth two of that.
So in the bottom of the trench we sat,
Waiting for the daylight to appear,
Also reinforcements from the rear.

The morning passed midst a might roar,
As the Germans were dropping shells galore,
But as they were dropping well behind,
The lads in the trenches did not mind.

In the afternoon the battle begun,
And we soon had the Germans on the run,
Over Hill 70 the beggars we chased,
And the shells from the Artillery were all well placed.

No doubt the Germans are a dirty lot,
Because for our wounded they care not a jot;
They fired on the stretcher bearers carrying them in,
And the shots from the snipers went ping, ping ping.

On the Wednesday night we got relieved,
And the hot rum and tea for all the boys received:
It made us all fell extra bold,
As we had been shivering with the cold.

We marched along the road all night,
And the star shells revealed a terrible sight;
For on Saturday the Huns had held this line,
And our Artillery had caught them fine.

Dead horses and men lay along the trench,
And they created a terrible stench;
Some were buried others were not,
We were glad to get away from that awful spot.

Now we are back in billets for a rest,
And although our billets are not the best,
We sleep quite sound from the roar of the guns,
And the bullets and the gas and the cowardly Huns.
But in the days to come, that memorable day
When the Gaurds made the Germans run away,
Will always be talked about with pride,
When the boys are sitting round their own fireside.

And your children will ask in tones of awe,
What did you do, Daddy in this terrible war?
Then you can answer with perfect glee,
That you were the boys that took hill 70.

Before the War Private Cross was employed at Messrs Jordan and Addington’s Mills, in a letter says:

We arrived here on the 11th leaving some of our Battalion at —— we stayed the night and in the morning we were taken for a route march round the town, it is a bit different from our English towns, is it not? As soon as we arrived in the harbour here we were under shell fire and have been ever since. It made us duck our heads the first day but we are quite used to it now. We went into action on the 15th for the first time, and our Brigade were told off to take a very important hill. Getting in grips with the enemy about 2 pm our boys cleared everything before them and gained the top of the hill in about twelve hours. It was a splendid feat, as the hill is a mile long. I am sorry to say we lost very heavy. . . . . our Battalion, but you would have been proud had you seen how the boys died. Since that battle other Battalions have given us the name “The Yellow Devils ” on account of us wearing a little yellow badge on the back of our hats. Our machine guns did some good work, our officer getting recommended for D.S.O., but I am very sorry to tell you that two days ago
he got shot through the head by a sniper and died. It was a great blow to us as he was such a good and daring leader. The worst thing we have to put up with here is the water. We get such a small quantity that it is almost as big an enemy as the Turks. The Turks are no good whatever with the bayonet, as soon as they see the white steel they shriek and run like hares. It is really only their artillery that we are fighting against. They are not such bad people as you have no doubt heard they are, as I know several cases where they have bandaged our wounded up and either sent them back to our lines, or if too bad have left them with some water by their side. You may not believe this, but the other day two Turks found one of our boys badly wounded so they bandaged him up and themselves brought him back to our
lines, and of course we took them prisoners, as no doubt they wanted us to do. It is surprising what a number of snipers there are here, women as well as men, they seem to be everywhere; they have been found with their faces and hands painted green as well as wearing green clothes. I haven’t time to write more as we are going into action again tonight at 8 o clock, so please remember me to Mr. Bonham, and tell him I shall come back to the “Old Mill ” safe again and sound. So goodbye for the present, hoping soon to have a reply.