Vol. 16. BANFF, ALTA.,  MARCH 6, 1915

LETTERS FROM THE FIRING LINE

The Princess Pats C.L.I. have been on the Firing Line for the Past Ten Weeks

Private W. H. Jennings, formerly on the staff of the Morning Albertan but now a member of the Princess Pats C.L.I., writes an interesting letter from the front detailing the death of three Alberta men:

Five of us were carrying ammunition into the trenches when the Germans caught us.  It was dark and we were sneaking along to get the ammunition and bring it back.  The German trench was only a short distance away.  Suddenly the darkness was split by a flare which lighted up everything all about us.  We did not have time to drop before the fusillade started from the German trenches.  The bullets spattered all about us.

The officer in charge of our detail, a man named price, from Edmonton, was instantly killed.

Another man, from Saskatoon, got a bullet in the chest and I got my skull chipped.

It was all over in a minute, and three out of five of our party which had started out were out of commission.  Not such bad work on the part of the Germans, was it?  We had about all the ammunition we wanted.

There were two other Calgary men killed the same night.  One was Captain Fitzgerald, the finest man and the most popular officer in the whole regiment.  He was the British reservist, of good family, who went out to Calgary a couple of years ago, went broke, and finally had to go to work at manual labour for the government at Banff.  When the war broke out he was among the first to offer his services, and as he was an excellent soldier, he was commissioned as a captain in the Patricias.

Old Jack Murphy was another man who was killed this same night.  He worked for the city for a time and was a friend of Barney Collison, Crispin Smith, and that crowd.  He was in my section and I had gotten to know him well. 

I am in hospital in Boulogne, and I have improved so that I can get around, and expect to be taken to England in a few days.

[note:  the indiviuals mentioned in the letter died between January 24th and January 26th, 1915]