Letter · 10 Jul 1917 · Flanders Fields, Belgium
Visions of Messines
Citation for Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM): 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in an attack. He led a small party on his own initiative to fill a gap between his company and another unit. He rushed a pill-box which was inflicting casualties on two battalions and captured thirty prisoners and three machine guns. He showed the greatest initiative and courage throughout.' (London Gazette, 26 November 1917)
Extracts from this letter
"I could not describe Messines Battlefield to you if I tried for the havoc and ruin baffles all description. Just imagine all those Aspen trees around your place torn, smashed or uprooted, not a branch on one of them and of those that stood only a portion of the trunk remaining. Imagine those paddocks around your house for a mile or more on either side so smashed up with shellfire that not a blade of grass is to be seen..."
"Imagine the shellholes to be so close together that it would be impossible for one to stand on a portion of the ground that was not broken by shells. Imagine broken barbed wire in long lines, broken trenches, and smashed dugouts & here and there a small wooden cross marking the grave of a soldier..... those crosses broken and those the grave smashed by shellfire. It seems horrible to think that not even the dead can rest & be untouched...."
