To his sister Margaret Layzell
11th Jan [1916]
6th Lon.Fd.Amb. 47th Division
Dear Marge:
I am a brute not to write to you oftener. You & Stanley are often in my
mind, I assure you, & I seize on the scanty scraps of news from B.E.A.
– It really looks as if something decisive were to be done your way.
As for anything decisive here, – how expect it, then three great
efforts – Neuve Chapelle, Festubert, Loos (I have seen the last two
with my own eyes) – have failed to break the German defensive! But
I won't discuss the war, – I really don't understand it a bit!
Still I am glad the Loos casualties – 60,000 – have been
published. – (Quite one of the bloodiest battles in history, I
suppose). So many people at home still don't seem to grasp what it means:
such figures must leur donnent furieusement a penser, you would think!
The home people are splendid in writing, & I have just got your Christmas
letter. It is one of the curiosities of this business that tho'
(as we do at this moment) you live like a troglodyte in dug-outs &
trenches, & are practically cut off from the outside world during hours of
light, your post arrives with up-to-date regularity. We are at the moment
manning an aid-post in the cellars of a farm – that was – in a
famous village. Quite a romantic spot! You can't put your nose round the
corner by day. If you want a "constitutional", you have to resort to the
trenches, where you are sheltered – but the scenery is so limited!
No, I have not had leave yet, & shall no doubt have to wait long for
it:– not a quarter of the fellows have been yet, & I have met men who
have been out longer than we, who have not yet been. People at home don't
understand that this "leave" question is not a right but a favour.
Officers of course get it frequently, however.
Here we do what work there is by night. I have just been trying to read
I. Hamilton's Suvla Bay despatch – but it is too heart-rending, so I
turn to a frivolous French novel that the officer in charge has passed on to
me. You know all that I do about home affairs, (it is more than a year
since I was home, & ten months since I saw them all).
Goodbye, my dear! Cheer up & give my love to Stanley. I am well – my nerves in good order, never better. Thy Richard