Destrubé family - letter written by Georges Destrubé to Dear Folk on December 31, 1915, Rest Camp.
Destrubé family - letter written by Georges Destrubé to Dear Folk on December 31, 1915, Rest Camp.
Description:
Item is a letter written by Georges Destrubé to his family on December 31, 1915. The location is indicated as "Rest Camp". In the letter Georges writes about spending Christmas at the front in France, and witnessing the death of a fellow soldier.
Subjects:
World War, 1914-1918; Destrubé family; Destrubé, Georges
Date:
1915-12-31
Collection:
Destrubé family fonds
Location(s):
France
Page Title:
1982-006_LTR_1915.12.31_1
Transcript:
[Upper left:] Copy
[Centre:] Dear Folk
[Upper right:]
Dec 31st 1915
Rest Camp
Lately I haven' t written you regularly. It
is not that there has not been anything to write
about, but because we have been busy every
minute.
We came out of the trenches on Boxing day
& spent two days at the billets & then marched out
here & established as rest camp. Our christmas day
therefore was spent in the trenches, with nothing occurring
to make it different from any other day!
except perhaps, an extra [illegible] in the morning.
Last christmas many < sup> un< /sup> usual things happened, men [met?]
& fraternized across the trenches, & we were looking forward
this time for some little incident of that kind, to happen
to relieve the monotony of trench life. But all intercourse
was forbidden & nothing happened.
One of our chaps showed himself, in spite
of orders, & as peeping up, saw a German standing
head & shoulders above the trench & they waived to one
another & our chap held up a jar of rum & then a
few more chanced their heads, above the parapet until
there were quite a few men on both sides. Then, a
sargeant-major, of ours took a shot at one of them
thro a loophole - a dirty thing to do, treacherous and
unsportsman-like that, of course, put a sudden
end to things. After than, it was' nt safe to put
so much as a finger above the parapet & they
lay in waiting & got two of our men in that part
of the line, who accidentially exposed theselves a moment
[Centre:] 2
As a rule they are a peaceable bunch and
believe would' tn fire a shot of rifle or [artillery?]
unless we did.
The biggest [illegible] we have yet seen
occured on Christmas eve. We started in & they
replied & for about three hours it was like
hell let lose. I must not go into details because
of the Censor, nor explain the reason for it Guy
Paul & I were temporally seperated. I was on
guard at a junction of a communication trench
at the time & could see shells bursting all round:
You can hear the screech & rush as the shells go
over & it kicks up so much racket you can
hardly hear yourself speak. There was a solitary
chap in a bay near to me and I heard his
groan follow the bursting of a German shell
that struck particularly close & showered me with
dirt. Poor chap! he was a married man with
wife & kids. I suppose he is dead now! - We
[can' t?] get to know. I bandaged his head with
the field dressing bandage that every man carries
in the hem of his coat & then the streacher bearers
came & with much labour got him out & took him away.
It is a hard sight to find one of our chaps,
with whom you have lived for months & were
talking to or laughing with a few moments before,
- to find him bleeding from two or three holes in
his head & lying unconcious in the mud. But
soldiers have to be callous to loosing their fellows
and one soon forgets, even the same day, almost
except [the?] poor chap laid out, be a special [illegible]
& then it is very hard indeed & affects one deeply
There was no difference in our fare for Christmas
day except the delicious milk choclate that
[Centre:] 3
dear old had sent us [illegible] wee piece of of christmas
pudding we had kept over for the occasion.
By the way, maman Alice' s pudding was [illegible]
[illegible] far superior to the piece of pudding that was
given out as regimental issue on Boxing day
night. There will be a slight flare-up on
new years day (tomorrow) when small christmas
funds will be used to supply a few extras in
the way of roast beef, roast pork, vegetable
& puddings. We are looking forward to it,
for we never get a meal in the sense of the
word. And how did you spend the day? Quite
quietly of course. I was sorry that Sylvie was
made to be home that day, but lets hope
that next Xmas will see us all home & the
war at an end.
We have not had time to write to poor
uncle Louis, but I will do so as soon as I can,
We are so sorry to hear that Grandmaman is so sad.
It seems that she is much better off with you at
home than at Boulogne, under the present
circumstances. Can you not promise her that
should she die in England, that you will
have her burried in France?
Many thanks maman Alice, for the parcel with
the grand pudding & to you too, Syl, for your
welcome parcel & you too Dan for your which
contained many pleasant suprises. Please
thank dear old [Gerlie?] for her grand cake that
also went down well.
[Centre:] 4
I believe we got all of your letters or
at least most of them. Please send us another
copy of that letter of Maurice' s if you can
[Pumps?]. I spoke about it in my last letter. (it
got covered in mud in my pockets & became
unreadable)
I will quit for the present, but will write
again very soon for I will now be able to find
time (for we are away from the trenches again.)
We wish you one & all as happy a new
year as possible & all heartily wish this
prolonged & cruel war will finally [coming?] to
an end.
Your loving son
signed Georges