Alma Russell Letters
Letters of British Columbia men on active service with Canadian and British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1918. Learn more.
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No. 13200, C. Coy., 7th. Cameron Highlanders, B.E.F., Oct. 11, 1915.
Dear Meg,
Received your letter all right.
No doubt you will have read all about the "big push" we had here about a fortnight ago. Well, the 7th. Camerons were in that and got it pretty hot. I came through it all with nothing more than a scrape on the arm and a bullet in a tin of bully beef I was carrying in my pack, but I am sorry to say that Bob Johnston is "missing" and his brother David is wounded, a bullet through the lung, and he is now lying in hospital along with my other pal, Jimmie Anderson. Of the group I sent out to you, we have only four left.
We were lying in reserve trenches while the artillery bombarded the Germans, and they didn't half give them beans. Sometimes the bombardment became so intense that we could not make out any separate explosion. It was just one continuous roar. I don't know how any of the Germans could stay in their trenches under it all, and not go mad. There were not many of them in the trenches by the time we got over but there was a big number in the village behind their lines, with machine guns. I was in the bomb-throwers and we had a fine time going through the houses hunting them out. We captured a big number of prisoners and they were in a pitiable condition, when they saw all the bayonets round them. They thought we were going to stick them all. It's a pity we did not. When the Guards relieved us they found that all our wounded who were lying over the hill, had been bayoneted by the Germans.
BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 12 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873-1964. Victoria; librarian. / Selected letter from Private James Paterson, 1915.