France 6/2/l917

Dear Mother,

Today I received the parcel which you were so good as to send me. It came at a very opportune moment when I needed it most too, as it is rather cold now and I was short of sox. We are very hard on sox this weather and I have been making the Aunts in England send along some now and then

I had 2 mufflers and yours made a third so I gave one away and kept the new one which is a beauty and very warn. The weather is still very cold and frosty and the English and French all say it is the hardest winter experienced for years. Paris has recorded 16 degrees of frost and it has often been 10 below freezing point. The ground has been covered with snow and frozen hard for quite 3 weeks and it is practically impossible to dig it with a pick and shovel and when a shell explodes it sends up great lumps of frozen earth as big as curb stones. Shells scatter very much on the hard ground and consequently are more dangerous than when it is soft. One thing we went short of last time in the line was water. It seems peculiar to say troops are short of water in a wet and snowy country like this I know but it must be remembered that it is impossible to carry water as it freezes and there is no chance of melting it under fire and within sight of the German trenches.

However when we get back a bit we either melt the ice or get the water under the ice in the shell holes, which is sometimes quite a foot thick. The roads are just like skating rinks and make it hard and dangerous to walk on with our packs and iron plated boots. Before the freeze the roads were very wet and muddy and now this is smooth ice bound stuff. All the duck board tracks are the same and walking on them resembles a glide rather than a march and accidents to arms and legs often occur. Still it is better for the troops to be just cold than both wet and cold, also the last post I was on in the line was a bombing post near the Germans who could look right into our trench during the day so that we had to lie down for 12 hours at the bottom of the trench with ice all round us. We had a blanket but still it was cold and as we had nothing hot to drink- it wasn’t much good.

When we were relieved, we came back to camp behind the lines and had just arrived when a German aeroplane dropped a bomb on one of the huts and killed and wounded several. However I suppose the same thing often happens to the Germans so we can’t growl can we.

I have seen Ken Martin again on 2 or 3 occasions lately, as he is in my Brigade and is often billeted in the same village as I am. He is still well and looks well and say the same of me.

I am glad you correspond with Amy Allen. She is a bonza girl and is rather pretty. I am sure your letters would be a comfort to her as she was very fond of Bert. Don’t be miserable in the future if you do not hear from me for 2 or 3 weeks as we seem to be having longer spells in the lines than before and consequently are less able to write. However I will always try to send a field card to let you know I am still alive if I can’t write.

Sometime ago I said I was sending a parcel containing my brush and some little souvenirs. Now I must say I did not send them as they got pinched instead. I am looking forward to that welcome home very soon now as we hear America has declared war of something. I suppose she has run out of paper.

Well I will close now by sending my best wishes to all, with love from your affectionate son,

WALTER