COU-28

B.E.F. 5^th Dec 1915

Dear Mr Elliott,

Thank you for your letter which owing to a delay in our mails I did not get until just a day or two ago. We are almost literally stuck in the mud here. Rain, rain, rain, day after day is a horrible prospect for men who have to live underground for a month at a time. Before I came out here I used to try to picture the conditions of life but I never got anywhere near it. So I do not suppose you will be able even with my help to understand quite how we live. The men are wonderfully cheerful though their rest at the end of a month in the trenches is exceedingly welcome. We have to stow them away in barns, where they sleep on straw. They say they are warm enough, for in addition to their blankets & great coat they now have a fur coat. The Battalion parading in these hairy garments is an excruciatingly funny sight. The men lose all semblance to British Tommies & look more like Turks or Serbians.

We got a German aeroplane today & brought it down. So far our aeroplanes have shown a marked superiority to theirs & apart from airships I think we have the mastery of the air quite safe. I had my Maxims (or more correctly Vickers) at work on this plane today & we made nearly a hundred hits, though we cannot say whether we actually brought it down or another gun belonging to the Marine Artillery which came up at the time was successful.

I am daily expecting to return to England. A week ago I asked to be transferred to an infantry battalion & our doctor insists on my taking as much rest as I possibly can so that I may recover the strength which I lost. The two combined probably means that I shall have to join a Battalion in training. I would much rather be at infantry work because I had to look after that side of the work of this Battalion while every-one else was engaged on pioneering now I am like a fish out of water.

The Bosches seem rather scared of us tonight for they are sending up a large number of star shells. You see we get out of our trenches at night to repair the damage done by day & the Bosche sends up star shells which burst into bright flame & burn for about half a minute, to see our working parties. It is marvellous how our fellows escape at times. At present we are more fully engaged repairing damage done by the weather than by any damage the artillery have inflicted on us. It is wonderful how flat one can make oneself when one of these shells burst overhead when one is mid-way between their trenches & ours. I have twice been right in among the wire in front of the German trenches without being seen but it is not the kind of thing I would care to make a pastime of. I don't mind admitting that on each occasion the sudden movement of a mouse would have set me nearly crazy with terror. On one of these occasions I had to stay for nearly four hours to do what I had been asked to do & several parties of Germans passed between me & our lines.

I cannot offer any evidence which will help you to conclude when the war will end, but this I do know, that if we have to endure another winter campaign it will be the fault, not of the Germans, but of the man who chooses to stay at home. We only want men now, the people in authority seem to have assured the product of ammunition, give us more men & we will soon be faced with the problem of crossing the Rhine. I do not underestimate the German as a fighting man, none of us who have faced him do that; & his tools are every bit as good as ours if not better but I do not think it is any secret that the offensive lies with us now & not the enemy. I am afraid our people at home who have not suffered physically by the war, as the French & Belgians have done (or perhaps I should say materially suffered) do not recognise the importance of throwing every ounce of weight into the fight.

Now I must close. This letter must strike you as being very scrappy but it has been written in the intervals of performing many duties. Tonight (the 6^th) I sleep in a bed a luxury I am sorry I cannot appreciate by remaining there until mid-day tomorrow. I shall rise before six, dress & see my men at breakfast, then breakfast myself at 7.0, & be on parade at 9.30. I expect to finish work at about 4.0 or 5.0 in the afternoon. Then we see the men again have sufficient rations & look into all the troubles, as ammunition to be replaced, clothes to be exchanged for new ones, boots to be repaired, inspect gas helmets & so on. This will keep us going until dinner time (6.30), after which there will be a final visit to the men's billets to see they are comfortable before our day ends.

Please remember me to my old colleagues & to your family. I hope you are all quite well.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

T. Coulson