Frank Swannell Diaries: Part I
Diaries of Frank Cyril Swannell Learn more.
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BC Archives MS-0392 - Box 1, Volume 4-5
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Ypres Apr-May 1915
LETTER TO LOCAL MAN FROM FRONT TELLS OF BOMBS
CANADIAN SOLDIER DESCRIBES VIVIDLY SCENES OF THE GREAT WAR
PROCESS OF "DIGGING IN" UNDER GERMAN FIRE
Description of Shrapnel Bursting and Effect of Asphyxiating Gas.
A letter recently received in this city from a soldier at the battle front in France tells most vividly of the use of the asphyxiating gas which the Germans have been employing in the war. It further describes the "business of war," as seen by the men who take an actual part in the great battles. The letter came to T. A. L. Leach of this city, from Private Frank Swannell, a boyhood friend of whom Mr. Leach went to school in Toronto, Canada. Swannell went to France with the British Columbia contingent, but has since been transferred to the 16th Battalion, Canadian-Scottish, half of whom were killed in action at the recent battle of Ypres, where the Germans first used asphyxiating gas.
THE LETTER
Canadian Expeditionary Force, France
I have received your letter of the 5th of April and I think another letter still, which I have lost. As all our letters are censored I can give you no place names. We are "Somewhere in France."
We were shipped out of England on about two hours' notice and found ourselves at the front quite before we knew where we were at. You have probably read of the charge of the Canadians three weeks ago. The 16th lost nearly half their men and we were rushed in to bring them up to strength again. We had no sooner reached the base than we got out first dose. "The Baptism of Fire," is the highfalutin' name for it. For several hours we had been rearranging our kit near an old barn--were just mustering for roll call when the German shrapnel found us. The tiles flew in all directions. One of ours got it in the head, while several were badly wounded. In the stable a horse was killed. That was the first time I heard the call "Stretcher bearers." That night we relieved the men in the back line of trenches; next day we dug ourselves in further forward.
Altogether we got six days continuously in the trenches, under heavy fire most of the time night and day. For nine solid hours one day it was plain hell. The shells from a French "soixante-quinxe batter passing close over our heads and the Germans doing their best to search them out. We got the benefit or the whole fusillade. That infernal shrapnel scared me nearly stiff. If properly timed and ranged (from the enemy's point of view), it exploded with an awful bang a little ahead of the trench, and then comes the hailstorm of bullets and scraps of iron humming through the air. We crouched down for hours at a time in the narrow muddy makeshift shelter we had dug out. One couldn't dig deep, as the water seeped in. The big shells "Coal boxes", make an infernal screech, but the effect is local. As for the bullets they whine or hum according to whether they are near spent or not. Our last two days we were along a road, along which the wounded were trailing back, or being carried by the French Red Cross men, for whom we all have the highest admiration. The field dressing station was in a farm two hundred yards away. No Red Cross flag, for that would simply have meant les Alboches would concentrate fire on it. As it was it got a good deal of attention and was nearly in ruins.
BC Archives, MS-0392 Box 1 Volume 4 / FRANK SWANNELL PAPERS / Diary and enclosures, 1915.