A muffled war

"Every shell fired our way we can hear distinctly fired, it's a muffled roar, shortly after you hear the roaring, squealing, screaming, squeaking whining, roaring shell, you then know it's gone past you (you feel safer), on it goes & shortly explodes with a deafening roar, throwing whatever it hits some [hundreds] of feet in the air for hundreds of yards around. When 3 or 4 come together the noise is appalling thundering, it's nothing but crushing cascades which are indescribable. Different sizes of shells have different notes, what we are getting is big stuff which about shakes the whole county..."

"I have had a damn rough time of it one way & another, any moment may get blown to atoms.... No mails are reaching us & none of ours are leaving so God knows when you'll get this."