Letters From the Front

Dated:

HUN PRISONERS INFERIOR

Allied Airmen Maintain Their Ascendency Over Enemy.

William H. Mackie, a gunner in the Canadian artillery, who, prior to enlistment, was employed as a newspaper man in Ottawa and the Canadian West, in a recent letter to his sister, Mrs. E. M. Henry, Oshawa, relates some interesting facts concerning the Canadians' part in the recent heavy fighting on the western front.  Gunner Mackie, whose battery is largely composed of University of Toronto men, has been in Flanders since January last.

In his letter, dated Belgium, June 21, he says in part:

The fighting in this section was, for a couple of weeks, very heavy, and the Canadians, although not right in the thick of it, were close enough to know what was going on.  Fritz sprang a couple of surprises on our chaps at first, and got the bulge, but we came back strong, and what our infantry did to Fritz was a shame.  There's no use talking, the infantry-men bear the brunt and do the work, and likewise there is no comparison between our infantry and Fritz'.  We've got him beaten to death, and it's just a matter of time.  I saw a bunch of prisoners who were fortunate enough to be taken, and while a few of them looked allright, the most of them were decidedly inferior men.

It's a wonderful sight to see the aeroplane activity these days.  Right now there is a Bosche machine overhead, and our anti-aircraft guns are after it hot.  It's great to see the white shrapnel bursts all around it.  Very often we see fights between two planes and the way they play their machine guns on each other is wonderful.  Our planes have it all over Fritz, though, and generally when one of ours starts after a Fritz, the latter turns tail for his own lines.

We've been doing a lot of work lately, fixing up our battery position.  The work has to be all done at night, so as not to be observed from enemy aircraft.  No doubt, you've seen pictures of trenches, etc., built of sandbags.  Did you ever stop to think of the amount of work entailed in the construction?  The number of sandbags alone in a battery position varies from 30,000 to 40,000.  They've all got to be filled and put into place, and that isn't figuring on the lumber, corrugated iron, etc., which must be placed.  Some job.

I've just witnessed a most wonderful air duel.  The aviators stayed right at it for about ten minutes, and finally one of them--I'm afraid, ours--fell to the ground.  They were up a terrible height and the damaged plane just seemed to tumble over and over until it hit the earth.