Item 01: Malcolm Shore Stanley correspondence, 8 December 1916-28 October 1918 - Page 126
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[Page 126]
"some" exciting, its a case of dropping into a shell hole & trusting to Providence, its surprising how quickly one gets used to it. Do not fancy for one moment that we are crouching up into a corner & feeling glum, we crouch into corners allright but there is no sadness about it, everybody realizes that if "your name is written on the shell" then up you go, that's all about it. We have become quite used to the awful sights of the battlefields moving amidst them one soon becomes quite callous, during the past few days I have seen hundreds & hundreds of mutilated bodies. I have seen men who have been lying in the cold & rain for 4 successive days & nights, wounded & unable to get out, 8 to 10 men are required to bring one man in taking approx 7 hours to do it too, the tracks are frightful, a sticky wretched mud which impedes all progress. I have heard men calling from under the earth. I have seen men stuck in the mud & their own mates passing absolutely to weary & exhausted to hear or see anything just stumbling on in the hope that this to reach - before they are done -- the road. Its a great game & really you warm up to it & at times feel a desire to get out among amidst its whirl.
Yesterday I got an identification disc off a dead Fritz, he must have been out to it for 2 or 3 months. I had passed him frequently poor cow, he wasn't the least bit interested in what was going on around - anyway its a curio for Florrie.
With lots of good wishes & love
Malcolm