8 April 1917

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8. 4. 1917.

My dear Mother,

Many thanks for your last, also for others from C. G & O & various books and papers. I hope G. is all right again. We are out of the line in billets & would be very comfortable except for guns which are all round & about us & hem us in on every side. Likewise where there are guns there do the Bosch shells go also, so we keep underground as much as possible when there are storms about. You will see from the papers that what I told you of has at last come off & they appear to have rolled up the Bosch fairly successfully & got over 2000 of them to keep. I don’t fancy the Bosch is to be left to himself. I see the papers are fairly gloomy, & old Balfour has been as pessimistic as he was about the Jutland show. Anyhow we are not done as regards the air here, though the Bosch is rather more enterprising, but he certainly can’t come over & do as he likes though I believe we haven’t got the same freedom as usual. From all the reports I see

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he has quite as many machines driven down as we do & it will only be the matter of a little time before we have the upper hand as before. It was exactly the same on the Somme last year & we didn’t really scare him off for 3 or 4 weeks after the start. Hamilton the adjutant got a blighty through his leg to-day & the Quartermaster & his Sergeant are sick, so our staff is sadly depleted & I am trying to think of someone who will ensure us getting our daily bread & can’t put my hands on anyone at the

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moment.

I hear that the people on the Somme are having the time of their lives, as they have all got little shows to run on their own & they get right away from the heavy guns & strafe each other with normal weapons to their hearts content. I don’t know what the Bosch thinks of this Vimy show but he will be put to it to have another big show on his hands in addition to the Somme, & I hear that ^the Vimy ^Ridge was to have been held at all costs

Love to all

Jack.

 

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