Leeds Mercury 1914: Letters from the Front
CHUMS IN THE FIGHTING LINE
Private Carwardine, who is now lying in hospital at Netley, writes to a Dewsbury man, with whose son he went away to fight for Britain.
“I hope this will find you in the best of health as I am not so well myself just now but I hope I shall soon be better and off to the front again. I am very sorry but I don’t know for sure about your Joe.
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Hide Ad“You see, although he was in the same company as me he was not in-the same section. I only wish he had been.
“The last I saw of him was when we were in the firing line making trenches for ourselves.
“He was about six hundred yards behind us, smoking, and I waved to him. Then all of a sudden we had to get down in our trenches, for bullets started coming over our heads.
“The enemy was about 700 yards from us. There were only a handful of us to about 130,000 Germans, but we kept them back.
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Hide Ad“After that I know no more until I found myself in hospital, and I asked one of our chaps how our company went on and he told me there were only 17 of us left out of 210. I hope Joe is among them.
“Don’t be downhearted for if Joe is killed he has died a soldier of honour on the field.
“Excuse writing as I am a bit shaky, and I hope to God Joe is safe, for both your sakes.”