Letters From the Front

Dated: June 18, 1915

Dear Mr. Editor,

Just a line to let you know that some of us Lethbridge boys have come through the first big battle for Hill 60.  It was something that some of the boys will not forget for years to come, the ones who came through it with just a hole or two in them are considering themselves lucky to get away from the battlefield of slaughter and the terrific din of cannons and rifle fire. 

I saw scenes after we made a charge for our guns on the 22nd of April that would make a man's blood curdle, but we gallantly accomplished the task given us in spite of the deadly machine gun fire that told the price we paid for the recapture of the guns by the next morning's roll call.  The Germans lost far heavier as our maxims made awful gaps in their ranks.

We were laying in billets in Ypres on the 21st April when the battle first started.  They dropped 'Jack Johnsons' in Ypres that made an awful wreck for hundreds of yards around.  It was a heart-breaking sight to see the old men and women who could hardly walk, making for dug-outs in the country, and women with children all around them.

The Belgian people think a lot of 'Tommy' and put their full confidence in him that in due time he will drive the Hun from their country.  I saw the beautiful churches at Ypres with holes big enough to drive a team and wagon through.  I got some dandy souvenirs.  I found a Prussian Guard's rifle and brought it to England with a saw bayonet and other curiosities that will always remind me of Hill 60.  I also got a peach of a bullet wound in my leg and a shrapnel wound in the back.

I was lucky to get to a hospital only a stone's throw from my home.  My people come and see me twice a week with all kinds of fruit and smokes.  It is awful to see the boys on crutches here and arms and legs off, disabled for life, fine big stalwart men.

I am the only Canadian soldier in the Duke of Connaught's hospital, the  rest are English troops.  I was two weeks in a Canadian hospital at Bristol, but I applied for a transfer so as to be near home.  They are very kind to me here, the ward was full of visitors on Sunday, and the boys call me 'Canadian Jack.'  I had my hands full Sunday talking to strangers, as I had a flag with Lethbridge, Canada, pinned on the cot.  I have carried it with me since I left, and would not lose it for the world.  We have a lovely ground to roam around in if one is able to get up, which I am not, worse luck, but we are happy with no Germans to bother us, although we had two Germans in one ward.

You should have seen the Germans beat it when the boys got through the bush after recapturing the guns.  Someone shouted, 'Come on the 10th,' others, 'come on the Canadians.'  Everybody got excited.  After they got going hell couldn't stop them and the Germans knew it.

After we heard they had crucified on of our sergeants, the fifteen prisoners we had soon got a quick shift.  Our C.O. was shot through both legs and died of wounds.¹  A finer colonel could never have been found.  There are five of the Lethbridge boys in our battalion who were wounded.

Odds were Great

We never knew that 16,000 of us were holding back a German force of 160,000 till days after the first battle for Hill 60.  The ground where the Germans had retreated was a horrible sight, as their dead were thick as we advanced over the top of them.  The Germans threw up star shells in the night and dropped them where our wounded were the thickest, and then fired on them.  That made the boys so wild they all wanted to make another charge, but we did not have the say.  We did all that was asked of us, and a little more.