Letter · 9 Sep 1916
Counting time
Harry Norton was killed in action on 15 September 1916, at Flanders. His family were not informed of his death for 5-6 weeks, and continued to write to him. Their letters were returned marked with 'deceased'. Harry wrote to his wife everyday - his letters are very descriptive and personal.
Extracts from this letter
"You count time here by seconds, not hours & minutes. You throw a bomb & have exactly 5 seconds before the explosion."
"You hear a shell coming & you have a faction of a second to wonder if they will find your identity disc."
"If it burst near you, you say D............ If it goes on, the remark is ' What rotten shooting'. So you see we have our little jokes."
"And there are a lot of Aircraft. Can you imagine thirty two close together, coming home? It is a grand sight."
