Source: Regimental Rouge
BEING UNDER FIRE IS LIKE TRYING OUT NEW CLOTHES
Sergt. Chester Smith Doesn’t Seem to Mind Being in Trenches With German Bullets Whizzing Over His Head Like a Swarm of Bees. Letter from a Member of the 18th Battalion.
Being under fire is just like trying on a new suit of clothes, according the Sergt. Chester Smith of St. Thomas, who in a letter to his mother, Mrs. John Smith, tells of his experience in this respect. Sergt. Smith is in the St. Thomas Company of the 18th Battalion. Under date of Oct. 3 he writes:
“I have been under fire for the first time. Have been in the trenches for six days. It is like putting on a new suit of clothes, a fellow feels queer at first, but soon gets used to it. Our trenches are about eighty yards from the German trenches and the bullets sing over our heads like bees.
Ross Silcox and Dan Turner are in England. They did not come with us, and Bob Smith is somewhere here but I do not know where.
“I am in charge of a party of bombers now. We do our own cooking and believe me, we have some meals. Three or four of the boys got boxes sent from home and they come in handy.
On Oct. 8th he wrote:
“We are now in a rest camp about 1 ½ miles from the firing line, and we sure are resting in the mud. It has been raining for three days and the roads are in very bad shape. We are sleeping in shelter tents just half way up a hill, and the water runs down like a river. [S]aw Fred Hall. He is looking fine. Alan “red” Fisher [and] Don McIntosh was up Thursday but I did not see him. Their battalion is coming up to take our place and we are going down near where they are coming from.
St. Thomas Journal. October 25, 1915. Via 18th Battalion Facebook Group from Allan Miller.
War Diary of the 18th Battalion CEF 