Letters From the Front

Dated: July 15, 1916

THEY HELD THE TRENCH

Terrific Bombardment From Enemy Sent Men Crazy.

Writing from a London Hospital to his mother at 344 Beresford avenue, Pte. J. H. Dodd says:

I will try to tell you how I got wounded.  You see the first division lost their trenches but in four days' time they got them back again; then the second division of which my battalion is a part, were sent up to relieve the first division and hold the line.  My battalion were holding a very particular piece of the line and our first day in was one continuous bombardment in which lots were killed and others driven crazy.  The portion we held was called Sanctuary Woods behind the village of Hooge.  Well the next day was fairly quiet in the morning, but the German aeroplanes and balloons were up observing our position, and about 4 p.m. we were in it again worse than before; we all had to stand to, with bayonets fixed, as the Germans were for making a counter-attack.  The shells were raining over, and one would wonder how on earth men could live under such a fire.  I was standing next to a machine gun; we looked at each other as if to say, "I think our time has come," when all at once in comes a shell that makes a hole big enough to bury a house in, killing some instantly and wounding another chum and myself.  It sent one totally crazy and not even a wound of any kind on him.  I got my hand tied up and waited until the shelling abated a little:  seven hours I waited in the trench, then I and another wounded fellow with the assistance of three chums, made our way for the dressing station about a couple of miles away.  Shells were dropping on our right and left but we made it quite safely.  How the rest of the boys have fared I can't say, but there were piles of wounded and dead when I was making my way out, and I tell you I am glad I am where I am today.  Anyway, Mother, we held the Germans off.  We have never lost a trench yet, and we always held what we were sent to hold.