France. 9/8/1918

Dear Mother,

I have been slightly wounded in the attack of August 8th with 4 or 5 others, got into a bout with about 10 Huns but as we had a Lewis gun, we won easily. However some of the Huns threw bombs at us and I got about 25 small pieces of tin in my hide, mostly on the right thigh and leg. None of the cuts is serious but I was rather badly bruised so was evacuated to Etaples, where I suppose I will be for a few days and will then return to the Battalion. As a matter of fact I rather enjoyed the whole show as it was worked so methodically.

We had a perfect and terrific barrage and were preceded by G tanks to the battalion so that there really was not much for the infantry to do except in isolated places missed by the barrage. There was dense mist plus shell smoke at the outset and it was impossible to maintain touch or direction so we collected together in small groups and fought our way forward to the objective and reorganized there.

I am rather sorry that the wound was not bad enough to take me to England but perhaps it is best as it is.

Well cheerio Mother and please don’t worry at all.

With love from your affection son,

Walter.

PS I killed (censored) Huns myself, do you mind