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explosion is terrific, it will blow up filled sandbags 60 ft. into the air. I have been under every kind of fire these months out here, shell, coalboxes, shrapnel, pip-sqeahs, whizz bangs, rifle and machine gun, rifle grenades, bombs, minnewerfas, hand grenades, aeroplane bombs, and so forth. But give me anything except trench mortars and aerial torpedoes, especially at night. Sometimes you can see them at night, the fuse alight, but the fuse is only on one side of the projectile and often you cant follow it, but only hear it coming. Our casualities so far in these trenches are I think 2 killed and 20 something wounded – most of these by trench mortars and the rest in the attack by german bombers. My pal, Roy Gillies, the other platoon bomber, is I am sorry to say, rather severely wounded. They say he is certain to get home to England, so perhaps for him it will be a blessing in disguise.

The advance sap where I was, was formerly an old german communication trench. We had put up a small barricade of sandbags and a few strands of barbed wire about quarter way up the trench. The germans had similarily put up a barricade about 35 yards further along the same trench. So we were in a rather unique position. We could hear the germans talking, and coughing and whistling as plain as anything. When their sentries were relieved, we heard the tramp of feet in their trench plainly. Half way between our sap and the german firing line a dead german lay in the open, he had a grey overcoat on. I think he must have been killed by our machine gyn when at duty patrolling.

In this part of the line it is one maze of trenches, the French and german have taken and retaken on another’s trenches again and again. Nothing but mine craters and old disused trenches everywhere. Our firing line is all mined by the germans, and we never know the minute we are going up in the air.

BC Archives MS-1901, Box 1, File 5, RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873–1964. Victoria; librarian. Letters and associated items from Private Jack A. Gunn, 1916–1916.