MERWIN GREER OF THE COBOURG HEAVY BATTERY WRITES. (FROM FRANCE)

Gunner Merwin Greer, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jos. Greer, Front Road East who went overseas with Lt-Col. Odell and the members of the Cobourg Heavy Battery, in a letter to his sister, Miss Nellie Greer, written in France, Sept. 26th, stated that the guns of the Composite Heavy Battery were in action that day for the first time. Gunner Greer says:

Dear Sister and all at home:
It is Sunday morning again and all is well so I thought I would drop you a few lines to let you know that I am living.

We had a couple of rainy days but we cannot complain, as we have had a lot of fine weather lately. You will be surprised to hear that we are now ready for action. We placed (here the censor's pencil was at work) Have fired nothing yet. All the men are feeling fine. I never felt better. I will try and write you all a decent letter when we get settled someplace, but for the last two weeks any old place has been our home. Nevertheless all are enjoying and standing the work fine.
One night the past week we all slept in a barn with about two feet of straw under us, I woke up in the night and thought I was on a feather bed. No such luck. We drivers are a ----- or so away from the, and while writing this I can hear our guns firing for the first time at the Germans. I have often seen pictures of soldiers and horses marching through towns on the way to war, but the past two weeks I have seen more than pictures. We sure have seen some fine country.

The farming country is different over here. You will travel miles and see no house, then a little village, then a few more miles and a village again, and so on. It is not like it is in Canada with a house on every farm. There are very few fences.

No Canadian mail yet since coming here, but we expect some any day now. I am writing this behind my horses under cover and quite comfortable. I can also hear the church bells ringing, but there are very few people here to go to church.
Au revoir. Love to all.
MERWIN.