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[Page 9]
young Percy and the Blacktown men rolling up, we want them all if only to fill up the gaps which grow in an alarming manner although we are not doing desperate deeds, if we were, they would want to send Battalions of them.
24th Its getting a habit with me to write my letters in instalments. During the night one of our cooks was hit in the shoulder by a spent bullet, he was in a supposedly safe place too, but bullets come in very queer ways, it will probably mean a trip to England or Malta for him lots of chaps are very lucky in getting superficial wounds that only require time to heal and do them no permanent injury as they get a trip to England perhaps and the best of attention all the time in fact some of them wont come back or hang out as long as they can while convalescing. Hope you have had rain. I know what it will meant to you to run short, we are cut very short at present ½ a gallon a day is the ration, it is a job to get enough water to have a shave and we look a ruffianly lot in consequence.
Our letters are censored but through the courtesy of my platoon commander who is a very decent chap I am enabled to close my letters without having them read, it makes a difference in the freedom with which one writes. Today I secured a pass and had a look around some of the places I had not previously seen and had a shot at a Turks periscope not more than 20 yards away, in odd places the trenches are even closer than that. 577 bags of mail for us has been sunk by a submarine, on the "Orange "Prince" and some mail from us to Australia was lost on a lighter, mostly Christmas cards and letters. I was a heavy loser, about 20 cards and 3 letters of mine went down.
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