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[Page 59]
blockbuster, & batteries of the enemy, the French Infantry carried out an assault almost against the German line between the Suippe & the Aisne. The enemy's first line was occupied almost along the entire line of attack. The French advance continues.
These fragmentary tidings of good news are very welcome & distributed amongst the troops are greatly appreciated.
We receive daily war office telegrams printed in excellent style on super fine paper, whilst a sheet called the Peninsular Press also comes along at regular intervals giving us news of the progress of European events.
This interesting printed matter is turned out by the R.E. staff at Imbros.
Sunday 26th Sept. 1915
My bivouac dug out is finished & is an excellent type of the sandbag shelter used on the peninsula. I am beginning to find work very more congenial though the days drag somewhat at times. In fact the same dull routine is repeated each day & the country has acquired an air of quietness relieved only now & again by the shriek of shrapnel in the distance an occasional retaliation round from shrapnel rifles which are the only indication that we are actually at war.
There are two things worth living for in this world – love & war. The worst of it is that you cannot materially enjoy both at the same time. Experience has taught me the bitter truth of all this, when I talk of war or its attractiveness, I don't refer to gay & happy regiments marching along to the accompaniment of brass bands or the soul stirring notes of the bugle & the medley of pipe & drum. I allude to the roar of thunder & clash of arms of the battlefield, of the silent secrecy of bayonet attacks under cover of darkness when cold steel finds a resting place in the quivering breasts of a thousand an one of our enemies to the shambles of death wh a bright morning reveals in some quiet verdant hollow where the bodies of our brave comrades & those of our enemy lie inextricably mixed to be loosed into a common grave "unhallowed & unsung". It may appear somewhat paradoxical that these things should be so loathsome & yet so attractive – the answer is simple yet irrefutable, the men go on & they love it all. The ethics of it I cannot explain. Considered from the true Christian standpoint war is bad. There is nothing in it compatible with biblical law. In battle the savage beast is uppermost & our desire is to slay. We are urged