Letters From the Front

Dated: November 8, 1916

Letters From the Front

Mr. Porte McKinnon, son of Mr. and Mrs. D. W. McKinnon, Clearview, Red Deer, writes November 8th, from Hampton Hill, Bushy Park, London, where he is recuperating after being wounded in the arm. He had got seventeen letters in a bunch the day before, which had been following him round. One, however, was dated May 16, and others in April, so he intended to get after somebody for the delay.

You were asking me what I thought of the war and when it would finish. I don't know what to think of it. We never used to hear very much when we were over in France. When we were in the Somme we had the best of the game all the time. But the bad weather and mud has put a stop to things, and anyone can see that while the Germans have had great losses, the Allies have had great losses in driving them back, too.

The British have the best air machines and have the Germans beat in the air. When we were in the Somme we could always see a dozen of our planes, and not one of the Germans'. But they fall back into fortified positions and have them all ready to go into where we have to go ahead and build over what has been blown to pieces with the big guns. All along the western front the British are throwing twenty shells, to one of the Germans'. But they just go down in the dugout and wait till the bombardment stops and then out he comes to meet anyone that wants to come over. They have dugouts from twenty five to seventy five feet deep with electric light, water pipes, cook kitchens, pianos and everything that you could think of for comfort in them. They have been driven back about 12 miles on the Somme, and all these dugouts are getting better all the way. They have elevators for letting stuff down while things are quiet and when anything starts they shoot them up with machine guns on. The Allies then go over with the tanks, and clean everything out that they come across.

The second time the tanks went over the Germans came out in full force of about five hundred men against it, and started bombing the tank but the machine guns from the tank soon put them all out of action and only took about one hundred prisoners out of the whole lot. They went on a little farther and got 250 more prisoners and brought the whole bunch in. That was doing fine. But the mud has stopped the tanks. They would need to be able to swim to go after them now.

This is a small map I took off a magazine the other day. The first trip I had into the Somme I was in a strong point with the machine gun. Just about 200 yards to the left of Mouquet Farm. We were holding about 400 yards of front between the Imperials and Canadians, B. and C. Company of the 2nd C.M.R.'s, went over and took Mouquet Farm. They lost heavy and D Company went in support with [?] Company in reserve. Billy Richards¹ was the only N.C.O. left, and their officer was gone, too, so Billy was O.C. of the platoon. One of the tanks went over just to the right of Mouquet Farm and the other just to the right of Martinpiuch. They had more tanks down the line around Flers. There was a dozen went over at once the same morning. Some of them came back all right and others didn't. But I don't think they lost any to the Germans. They were hit by shells after they got back into our lines. If a big shell strikes close sometimes spoils the tracks which are just the same as VanSlyke's engine, only larger. The track goes the whole length of the tank and right over the top, so shrapnel has lots of chance to put them out of commission. They have the advantage when they go over, for the Germans are afraid to shell their own trenches. The tanks carry 500 shells for 2 1/2 inch guns, that they have, and 30,000, rounds for machine guns. I was just to the left of Martinpuich when I was wounded.

The busiest place in the world today is between Albert and Pozieres: that is the main road to get into the front line, where the British are advancing; that is, unless the Germans have some place to which they are moving more stuff. The busiest streets in London today are not moving half the stuff that is being moved there. About as near as I could make out from the papers here in the last few days, the pencil mark on the map is just about the front line of the British: and they are about seventy-five to one hundred miles from Germany yet, so if Lloyd George is going to whip the Germans the way he says they are, its going to take a long time. Of course that is just looking at things, the way we see them, about the front line. The big offensive may be taking a lot more effect behind the German lines than we think. We hope it is, anyway.

Well, dad, I don't know what to say about sending money home. I have about $165 to my credit, or more. But I don't know whether they will let me remit it or not. I would rather have a few cattle at home than the money not doing anything or being idle here. I will see what can be done about it when I get back to the base where the chief paymaster is.