Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

23 articles on this Page

RUM UNDER BED. 1 I

..-.-: I UNSPEAKABLE TURK.…

-_._..-I LLANDYSSUL MAN WOUNDED…

INJURED SWANSEA -MAN -RECEIVESit,…

0 0 "':';' ð " "O?T OF OMS?."…

LLANSTEPHAN SA -"R KEEPSI…

! DEFENCELESS TCWJS. ! e

PRESENTATION TO SWANSEA I…

POPULAR SCHOOLMASTER. I

NEW WELSH TENOR. I

I NAVIGATION.

News
Cite
Share

I NAVIGATION. I A SUBALTERN'S EXPERIENCES. j The following letter is from a subaltern at the front:— The Trenches, Dec. 12 (midnight), I have been ilooded out of my bed, and as this little spot on the table seems to be the only one where no muddy drops are j fa Ring from the roof of the dig-out, I illl;t as well seize the opportunity to wnte between now and daylight. When I wrote last we were frost-bound. It soon thawed, 'and for the last fortnight i wo have been the victims of rain. To make things pleasanter we have the pros- pect of eighteen days (over Christmas! before we get back to billets. It is diffi- clIlt to give you an idea of what steady rain here means. One's lines seem such an orderly permanent townlike and solid serie3 of cubby-holes and trenches that when they all start to fall in. and one doesn't know where one is in the dark, it i is as if one were trying at home to navi- gate a pitch dark London i4 ruins. Navi- gate is the word. The divisional staff have ordered gondolas, and we are going to train the fiercer malo eels of Flanders to carry bombs to the enemy's trenches. What makes me so wild is that I was just glorying in a brand new dug-out with another sub. The night after I moved in my old one collapsed altogether. The sap- i per who appears every night to do odd jobs about our lines swore this one would be watertight. He came in just now and sat on the doorstep with mud flowing down his neck, and he ii sueii a cheery soul that we forgave him. He bringy us nightly all the humorous gossip of the sblf, to wit: Item.—That the Indian division and the (jrci-'vans were so close tc each other last week that they used the same parapet to their trenches, and took it in turns to fire through the loopholes. This week they have got closer, and are separated only by sandbars. Our own Germans are getting closer, too. Two hundred yards is about our average, and we are both pushing ahead with saps. I amused myself to-day b. pinking one of their periscopes, which both sides use freely, so aa not to let them get too accustomed to the sight of our dirty and stubby faces. Our men are very keen at the loopholes, and no sooner doos a bit of German skin show itself than it is perforated. What I object to principally about our k Germans is their lack* of appreciation of humour or sport. They a^e so devilishly business-like. A lamentable instance oc- curred to-day. One of our men was up in a willow tree in the rear cutting withies. A shot passed him, and he signalled, A miss, left." Then he signalled another, right, and the third took him through the head. There are the strictest orders about the men exposing thc-niselvos, but you see some astonishing things. I watched q j man yesterday walking slowly along the < side of the communication trench right j ( up to the line. He had a sack of coke, and was bothered if he was going to stick in the mud with it. A hail of bullets missed him, and he stoppeJ io light a pipe behind an 18in. willow even then before he very 'l i i his I o?i d deliberately got do?, n with his load. < Talking of willow trees, I never want to see them or poplars again in my life. A willow gave me a short, sharp shock two nights ago. I was out scouting with a i party, and we went on further than we in- tended. I hadn't a riile with me, and when we had crawled up to within forty yards of the enemy's sap (it was a fairly clear nighti I suddenly saw what looked exactly like a German crouching down j with levelled gun. Mv heart went pit-a- J1 pat. I hastily signalled for the rifle of a i man behind me, only to find there was j: nothing in the magazine. Luckily, it turned out to be a willow stump, with a bough iRveHed in our direction. In the first fiiish of pride in our dug- out H. and I christened it The Cormor- ante," No. 1, Park-lane. Wo chose the name as descriptive of the inhabitants. That is to say, w are both concerned, to ( find that though formerly people of E moderate appetites, life out here has con- I verted us, like most people, into appalling gourmands. Every problem resolves it- self into food val ues. The great panic at I present is that the Christmas offerings of good folk at home will by some mischance not reach us in time. Some days ago a benevolent captain pre- sented us with a box of shortbread, which disappeared as by magic. We halved the crumbs with wistful care, and promptly wrote postcards to everyone we could think of clamouring for stacks of it. I, can't expect you to look upon this as any- > thing but siubiony. but a course of ration bread and bully beef, and the necessity of keeping out continual colds and damp, would, I think, bring it home. We are quite out at present, because the latest arrival in the company, who is straight from Sandhurst, is a super-cor- morant, and can give either of us half a 1 loaf start and win hands down. Well, our cheery sapper newsmonger has just warmed our frozen gloom with the tale of the naval victory off South 1 America, a victory in Galicia, and the 4 positively authentic information (for the twentieth time) tha,t the Kaiser is sick unto death. When his Majesty gets to the i Shades, I can only hope Pluto will put rJm on a fatigue party under Lance- corporal Sisyphus to carry 1001b. of bully beef nightly through a ten-mile communi- cation trench, two feet deep in mud, only ( to find when he gets to the other end that he had no tin-opener, and no knife or bayonet for substitute. I'

_.. - - - -REGISTRAR'S WARNING…

- - - - FRED BATEMAN DEAD.

[No title]

Advertising

THE INVASION OF BRITAIN.

A SUITE OF FURNITURE. I

Advertising

jCLERKS AND RECRUITING. ,…

-I DEATH OF A LLANELLY SOLICITOR.…

BOARD OF TRADE AND A SWANSEAI…

Advertising

[No title]