Another letter giving realistic glimpsed of the fighting in Northern France and Belgium has been sent home by Pte. Joe Finch, of Ammanford, serving with the Shropshire Light Infantry, to his brother, Mr. W. Finch, of Pontycleric House, Ammanford.
“I told you in my last letter about it being cold in the trenches (he says). Well, yesterday it was worse than ever, as we had rain, snow, and hail accompanied with a keen east wind. I don't think it could have been much colder.”
“We left the trenches again on Saturday morning and went back into the reserve for a short rest, having been in the trenches for fourteen days and nights; and, now, I don't think we shall go into the trenches for another week at least.
We did not get much fighting in the trenches during that period, as most of the fight is now raging on our left flank towards the coast, you know – the way that “Willie the Dreamer” is thinking of getting to England via Calais .
No doubt he will manage that about as well as he did when marching to Paris . He has got something to do before he gets what he wants with the British and French, and also our Indian troops.
“The Gurkhas have already shown the Germans how they can use their knives or kurki, as they call it. I believe they have already had thousands to their credit with killed, wounded and prisoners.
“We did have two in the firing line but they were of a very faint-hearted nature, and we only lost one and had three very slightly wounded in my battalion, but I can't tell you how the right and left flanks got on.”
“The only bit of excitement I had was on the night of the second attack. I was on duty about 900 yards in rear of my battalion seeing that no water was wasted by the men during the process of filling their water bottles, when a few stray shells and a few bullets from the enemy's rifles started to come round us. So you may guess, we made a pretty quick move to rejoin our different companies, but, I am pleased to say, we all managed to return safely.”
He proceeds to say that he does not need anything else at present in the way of clothing, but is thankful for the great kindness shown towards him.
In a postscript, he says he has just received a copy of the Amman Valley Chronicle which he hopes to read all through the week. He has no doubt that is the first copy to reach that part of the world.
