Somewhere in France
12/16

Dear Mother

Just A Line to Let you know I am getting on O.K. Have been in the trenches for [?] days but I am Laid up Again with boils. Our battn has been in the trenches for 13 days that makes 20 days in the trenches in three weeks So you see we dont get much rest over here. And we Live on wind and [cenery?] About half the time We get 3 days in the first Line trenches and we dont get [damaged] And add hours to sleep. And when Fritz gets nasty we dont get any sleep at all. But we ar very Lucky so far we have only had 5 casualties in A. Coy. Since we have been in the trench About A foot and A half deep we thought this was bad but when we got up further it was mud up over the knees well we were in this for About 4 hours before we struck the support trench and it was worse still well we all got into this and the officer halted us. And says make your selfes comfortable boys this is where we stop. Well you know how A fellow would feel standing ther nearly to the waist in mud. Well another fellow and I got our entrenching tool scooped some mud out of A hole in the The bank then we pulled some fresh stuff down to sit on and went to sleep our feet and Legs still in the mud. Oh I tell you this is an experience worth any young fellows while having. Well we got 96 hours of this. The fellows walk all About the trenches in the morning and we can see Fritz doing the same as Long as we dont shoot He dont bother us. but this is only early in the morning our casualties have been pretty Heavy between 1[?]0 and 200 hundred this Last week Sidney Shard was wounded in the next bay from me and he died About 8 hrs after. The first day in was my birthday day and Fritz just reminded me that it was Halloween I was having a Little snooze in A mud hole and he sent over A whiz bang and blew my rifle and gass resperator to pieces and nearly buried me up with clay. It woke me A Little bit quicker than revally does. I tell you old Fritz did send some across to us the first day. Oh I dont need any socks or anything Like that and I smoke cigarettes now the bad tobacco made me start and now I cant stop.