1919 Letter 4
#8 Can. Stat. Hospital
Dunkirk –
March 21, [1919]
Dear Mother –
Your wire or rather Papa’s, was mailed to me from Oxford St. and it has made me feel that I should have gone straight to England after I came back from Germany. Until it came I was not seriously alarmed about Eric though mad enough and I still think it is pretty funny.
Before your wire came I had Col. Munro wire the O.C. Kinmel Park and the reply was that Eric left there Dec. 29 – for M.[G].2 wing Seaford. I do not know what that address stands for – same thing in machine guns I presume and I expect Eric has been sent back there for wing duty during demobilization. However I have wired him there and told him to cable you at once, and if I don’t hear from him soon I shall go over to England. I expect he has been busy and has forgotten that he had relatives – but when I see him he’ll realize that he has and that they can be very objectionable too. But till I hear I had better suspend judgement.
Your letter of March 2nd has just come, and you will have heard all about my trip to Cologne by this time. It was indeed a piece of luck being over here at the end. Since the Armistice every one is encouraged to go up the line and O.C’s can grant unofficial leave so it is a great change from the war when if you wanted to see anything you went lorry-hopping and took a chance on getting back.
I have 5 days Brussels leave due and my regular leave but will wait till I hear from Eric before doing anything. I suggested my taking 5 days leave to England but Col. Munro said it would take 2 weeks to get it through and advised wiring in the meantime.
Last Sunday 5 of us went by ambulance to Ypres. We left here at noon, went way of Cassel, Hazebrouck, Poperinghe, [Flamberting], Abeel to Ypres. Had lunch in Pap, and reached Ypres about 3 pm. So you will have some idea of the distance apart these places are, and the short time it would have taken the Germans to reach Calais if they’d come through. Ypres was rather a surprise to me. The walls of the Cathedral and Clock Hall are still standing and it was not so badly destroyed as many of the other towns. But it was desolate enough for all that. We saw no man’s land and the Salient the Canadians held, and then went on by Zonnebeeke to Passchendaele. In Zonnebeeke not one stone remained on another and the same at Passchendaele and between them the most appalling chaos. It has been partially cleared but even now it looks bad enough – near Passchendaele there were about 20 tanks – Germans and ours – in various stages of ruin, and where they had been torn open you could get a splendid idea of the interior. There were also quite a few German pill boxes thrown up during the last advance.
We got a few shell cases but too many people had been there before us and we had to content ourselves with what was left.
I picked up a Hun tin helmet but whether I’ll ever have room for it is more than I can tell. Have enough shells for a [gong] and a couple of Boche Anti-[tank], and will do my best to hang on to them. I have collected so much only to be forced to discard it when it came to a move.
I saw Bailleul, Armentieres etc. on the way to Cologne and Tournai D[ ], La Bassee etc. coming down so I have now seeing a good deal of the front. Hope I shall see V[ ] though.
No word yet about going to Cambrai but will write you again in a day or two.
Don’t worry about Eric. He’s probably [studying] some new work.
Lovingly –
Helen