Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 497
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[Page 497]
[Private Raymond Thomas Wharton, No 2143, butcher of Redfern, NSW, enlisted on 28 April 1916 aged 19, and noted that he had served 6 months in the Fiji Defence Force. He embarked from Sydney on HMAT A68 Anchises, 24 August 1916 with the 36th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcements. He served with the 36th and later the 35th Battalion in France where he was wounded in action on 6 May 1918. He was hospitalised in England and returned to Australia on 16 January 1919.]
Somme where in France
3rd May 1918.
Dear Brother Arch.
Just a few lines to let you know how I am living here, am in the trenches in a very quiet Sectre and just waiting for the Hun to push us back to his 1918 Spring Offensive Object "Amiens".
Well,the weather is fair to middlein and the scenery very much Camaflagued with shell holes and trenches. except the sky which is and always will be the same and the fowl that sings therein, nature, still proceed's in the same old way and the Sun still shines and gives heat that gives the earth life and friction. (Some poet me).
I am in my man hood sphere now and seem to know everything and can talk about everything according to the law of nature since I have been here and seen how men come and go for ever, I have thought much about the, Ways, Habits, and different Ideas of men, this is the place where men express their the opinions from a good Christian point of view and not that selfish, narrow minded, pessimistic way which they did before, as a saying goes,