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In A«essippi church an examination of S. S. children will be held on Sunday, July i tth at r p m,A largely attended meeting of the committees of the Patriotic Society and * Sports was held on Friday last, the 2nd inst. The seci'y-tieas. presented his reportwhich showed that $338 50 hadbeen taken on Sports Day and that the total expenses amounted to $34.82, leaving a balance of$333 3 A very hearty vote of thanks was given to th«- ladies for helping in such a splended manner on Sports Day. The secretary was instructed to find out alkpartic-ulars about installing a bed in a Red Cross Hospital, and to call a meeting of the Red Cross committee as early as possible to make arrangemente re spending money collected for the Red Cross. The meeting thei} adjourned.Latters From The TranchesThe following letter was receivedbv Miss E.Smellie from her brother George, written after some severe fighting in the trenches.We are still resting, and at the same time wondering how long our rest is going to last. How are things going in the offica^and i:» the store ?I hope Jack and Bob did not go to Roblin to jo:n. They have no business wanting to come here at all. There seem to be any amount of able bodied men in Eng-land who are not working and they ahould'rnlist before they bring any kids from Canada. There are not as many youngsters among either the Imperial or Kit-cbner’s armies as there are among the Canadians. Besides even if they are able to stand the physical strain, there is also a very greatnervous strain which might not do£very much at the time but is suie to have its effect later or! in their- Ipr n«vc'Dclt;5u wotrytti^ *boiitit ever since I heard they wanted to enlistI atn going to run a risk in this letter getting through and tell you a few things about what we have been through and I hope when dad hears it he will at least try and keep Bob at home anyway.The first place where we went into the trenches was at FestubertLace front On thethere were shellsroad going in’ dropping all along and lt;*t one place we had to stop and get picks and shovels for we heard that the trenches we were going into were rot very good and we would have to build them up While we weie waiting on the fide of the road, a shell came and killed, Earle, a man who came from Birtle, and wounded f jur others. We formed single file and marched from th« re to the trenches. That first sight sicken-ed me, I felt that my stomach was empty and I had a great fear come over me.As we went on into the trenches we saw severe! dead bodies lying arourd and although it was fairly dark we could tell there had beengreatfor thestench was fearful. The trench we took was an old Germancommunication trench, it was notoriginally intended for a front trench, but when the British cap-tuied it their line was changed and they had to use it as their front line. It was not even bullet proof let alone shell proof and there was no way of fixing it upYou cannot understand what a trench is like till you have seen one They are not all dug deep into the ground. In France here there is so much surface water that you do not dig verv far before you strike it. The trenches are generally dug anywhere from two to thr«*e feet deep and then usualiv the parapets are built up five or six feet with from 5 to 8 thicknesses of sand bags with loop holes left in them, at the rear there are dug-ou*s but t with sand bags so that those who are not on sentry havejust about a foot of earth thrown up against some boards for para pets and there were no dug-outs built at all. The first night we all kept a look out.The next morning there wasvery little shelling going on andwe were running around making dug outs, etc. About noon shells started, you could hear them whix through the air and see where they hit. The German trenches were about 800 yards from 11s so they were abfe to shell our front linewithout endangering their own.Every once in a while a shellwould hit somewhere along thetrench, then the word would be passed down for first aid and stretcher bearers, and shortly they would pass along taking out the wounded, moaning ar*l bleeding. Often pieces of sharpnel hit the parapet only inches above our heads and at other times “JackJohnsons would cave in the dug-outs, burying the fellows in them, killing'and wounding most of them.At other times they w'ould hit in the front of the trench and send shoversof earth over us.At night fatigue parties had to leave the trench to- go and draw food and water. One night a lance corporal left with twentv seven men for that purpose (the Germans never let up shelling the road to and from the trenches, and when the party returned there were only eight men and the lance corporal** left. JMany menwent out of their senses under that fire.One morning there were so many wounded that we did not have enough stretcher bearers and I had to go and help carry some wounded. I will never forget it.AH the way up to the dressing station we were being shelled and had to go slowly on account ol the weight of our stretchers. Along the road and on the road there mast hav“ been over one hundred dead bodies, the water beside tile road was ah yellow (nearly red) with blood, some of the bodies were partly buried, but I gue:s the shells were falling so thick that it was dangerous to stay there and bury them.Every morning we had to take the dead from the trench and bury them as best as we could, the officers or the senior N. C. O. would say a short prayer over them I think that part of the work was the worst of all, although the inaction was bad enough. If we could have been doing something ve might have been able to forget about it all but we had to stand or sit and w'ait for death.The last place where we were inthe trenches was at Givenchv aLo on the La Bassee front It was much better there. We were only from forty to sixty yards from the Germans and that was too close for them to shell t ur fror.t line, but the rifle hre was very heavy and there was great danger from snipers The worst thing was at night when a listening patrol had to go out in front of the trench and there was danger of being seen when the Germans sent up their flare lights. Twice a nii-ht fati-gues were sent out to dig communication trenches and they never all came back.Tobacco Subscription ListAlready acknowledged . ..... Miss. Isabel! McKinnon, MiIiwr»od Thos Madill, kusvel! .. . .... J A Callin,i I G AlienIII. P......... $2 OOI*5§«i«• 0 9 0 •• «. I. K Blanchard, ResellL V Smith* -v* * * * •###0-000* * **«ci«*iIf. A Coulter..Mrs Wtr. McKinnon, Millw Mrs* Victoria Heap*Miss Edith Spencer Miss Dolly 11 p Miss Josephine SpencerMias Annie Adams, Ases«ippiMr P«! ling,Mrs Brewster.D Sega!Mrs HofLway Alice CartwrightCliftoid WburnerP.J* m •• **4 *0 0protection from shrapne h II fire.during_ ******W T Storey Willie McKinnon Mary McKinnonMillwoodlt;4 it *«14#** ••000 0 0 00 *0 0 *.,00900 0 9 0• *# w wcfcinnoavVell the trench we were i.i was j je*»ie McKinhi* *14II0 0 0 09 00 *■• *2$*35«235lt;Srt25252525232525252;5«2525■0*0* ~ J2;25STSas
Newspaper Details
Russell Banner
Russell, Manitoba, CA
Thu, Jul 08, 1915
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Nola K.
CA 08 Nov 2020
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