Item 01: Malcolm Shore Stanley correspondence, 8 December 1916-28 October 1918 - Page 234
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[Page 234]
mighty quick, the walls are all pitted where small fragments of steel have struck, doors are pierced, factory chimbneys have collapsed & in two cases I saw chimbneys thro which shells had passed - old Fritz evidently thought they had been used for observation posts & he must have tried to "stonker" them.
[See image for drawing of chimney with the comment "say 100 ft."]
I wandered into the main square called by soldiers the "½ past eleven square", old Fritz put a shell into the works of the clock & the fingers stopped at that time. I wandered into the Hotêl de Ville (town hall) it was still furnished and from the wall I took a small thermometer which you will receive later, its a silly thing I know but will give origin to many a yarn. 300 civilisions were gassed near the Square, & fighting between the German & French took place in front of the Hotel de Ville. Today as I walked along the ground white snow was stained with blood, I expect some poor chaps got it there this morning. It is a town I had