Transcription
(9 – 9 – 18)
9. 8. 17. (18?)
(rec’ 16 Sep 1918)
My dear Father,
Very many thanks for your letter & trouble. I enclose my cheque for the £1, and shall be very glad when the stuff arrives, as at the moment I am smoking the ration issue which appears to be made mostly of Virginia creeper with a flavoring of canariensis.
We are out of the line at the moment, doing a little training & cleaning up, but the weather is against us, as the last 2 or 3 days have been wet. I hope the autumn rains have not set in, as it will have a tremendous effect on the offensive. Their communications must be very difficult as it is. I think tanks must have been largely responsible for its success, as I know the casualties have been very light for most of the time & I do not believe the heavy losses. I think after last summer they have learnt the wisdom of not pressing on against overwhelming opposition, and nowadays try somewhere else.
They appear to be moving in the South from one of our defensive lines, which we made last winter on to the next & I fancy progress will be slow, as they are all among the thousands of miles of wire, which we put out in that area & never used,
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& I don’t suppose the Bosch has had time to reel it all up.
In any case it looks as though he is not going to make much of a stand this side of the Hindenburg line, though I suppose he is bound to resist there, if he had any self-respect left.
Love to Mother
Yours
Jack.
I wonder if you would send me out a dry Battery Ever-ready No 126. I have increased my cheque accordingly & as the girls have flown, will you keep the change, as I may ask you again later on for other odds & ends