Original Letter
France.
My Dearest:–
Say, Bubbsy, what have you done to me? This morning when I got up, I went for breakfast feeling pretty low. I drank a cup of hot water before eating and on my way back to my dugout I was congratulating myself that I was better. I went in to the old hole and immediately got sick and catted! Since that though I do feel absolutely right. But it looks like a sign to me. Tout de suite I shall overhaul my pretties. Ferris you’ve put me on the bum.
The weather is gorgeous but I shall be glad when we move from this place. Probably I dislike it because I’ve been feeling off colour ever since we came here – it hasn’t been very busy excepting at night. It used to urge me that idea of getting up out of bed to attend to some fiddling thing but it seems quite natural now. This morning I was up at five doing a bit of work that took me about half an hour. After I finished I went back to my blanket But I didn’t need any more sleep and I dreamed waking dreams of you. They were good little dreams too, Dear. I did not try to pretend that you were here with me – that would be the dirt asking you to sleep in a very dirty, very stuffy dugout with a very inadequate supply of bedding. But I pretended that I was down there with you and that I was in your arms and had just wakened up and realized that I was in your arms and I gave myself lots of good little thrills. But its pretty hard to have the good visions in these surroundings. But I love you Dearest, and my surroundings cannot influence that. Your mari
Ross
you’ve put me on the bum
- Note
- Ross seems to be (playfully) blaming Mary for his illness. Why? Because he is so lovesick?
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30-9-17
- Note
- There are two letters for this date and it is difficult to say which was written first.
If this is the second letter for the day (since in the other one he mentions things that are chronologically earlier in his experience - their arrival in their present location, i.e.) why doesn't he mention in the other letter that he is sick? (He says it happened right after breakfast.)
The confusion may be caused by the fact that he appears to have gotten up twice today - once at 5 a.m. and then again at the regular breakfast time. Perhaps he wrote Mary the other letter at 5 a.m. (or shortly after finishing the business he got up for at 5 a.m.) then this one after getting sick after his (later) breakfast.
However, it is odd that he describes in this letter what he did when he got up at 5 a.m. (took care of the business he was wakened for then went back to bed and daydreamed about Mary), but doesn't mention having written her a letter then. - Contribute to the Project
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Ferris
- Note
- Ferris was Mary's maiden name.
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catted
- Note
- Colloquially, to cat means “To vomit.”
Source: The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed, prepared by J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). - Contribute to the Project
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dugout
- Note
- A dugout is a shelter constructed, as the name suggests, by digging a hole—either into a hillside (as pictured in the first image below), into the side of an existing trench, or simply in the ground. From Ross’s letters one gets the impression that battalion headquarters was often in a dugout—and, consistent with this, the Spartacus Educational web page (“Dugouts,” see link below) maintains that large dugouts in the side of communication trenches often served both as battalion headquarters and officers’ sleeping quarters.
To understand the conditions in which Ross was working and fighting, it is necessary to understand the basics of trench warfare, which The New Encyclopaedia Britannica describes as:...warfare in which opposing armed forces attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into the ground. The opposing systems of trenches are usually close to one another. Trench warfare is resorted to when the superior firepower of the defense compels the opposing forces to “dig in” so extensively as to sacrifice their mobility in order to gain protection.
... In making a trench, soil from the excavation is used to create raised parapets running both in front of and behind the trench. Within the trench are firing positions along a raised forward step called a fire step, and duckboards are placed on the often muddy bottom of the trench to provide secure footing.
...
Trench warfare reached its highest development on the Western Front during World War I (1914–18), when armies of millions of men faced each other in a line of trenches extending from the Belgian coast through northeastern France to Switzerland. These trenches arose within the first few months of the war’s outbreak, after the great offensives launched by Germany and France had shattered against the deadly, withering fire of the machine gun and the rapid-firing artillery piece. The sheer quantity of bullets and shells flying through the air in the battle conditions of that war compelled soldiers to burrow into the soil to obtain shelter and survive.
The typical trench system in World War I consisted of a series of two, three, four, or more trench lines running parallel to each other and being at least 1 mile (1.6 km) in depth [sic]. Each trench was dug in a type of zigzag so that no enemy, standing at one end, could fire for more than a few yards down its length. Each of the main lines of trenches was connected to each other and to the rear by a series of communications trenches that were dug roughly perpendicular to them. Food, ammunition, fresh troops, mail, and orders were delivered through these trenches. The intricate network of trenches contained command posts, forward supply dumps, first-aid stations, kitchens, and latrines. Most importantly, it had machine -gun emplacements to defend against an assault, and it had dugouts deep enough to shelter large number of defending troops during an enemy bombardment.
In practice trench warfare was problematic. Not only did “digging in” mean a key tactical sacrifice of mobility, but conditions in the trenches, particularly for the Allies who were forced to occupy lower ground, were appalling. The constant wet meant constant discomfort at best and at worst led to serious conditions such as trench foot, a form of frostbite caused by chronic exposure to cold, which if left untreated progressed to gangrene, sometimes necessitating amputation (Encyclopedia Americana). Sanitation was also a problem, and garbage and human waste building up in and near the trenches contributed to the spread of disease and to generally foul and unpleasant conditions. (See note on “rats” with the letter of October 1, 1917.)
See photos (below - click on photos to enlarge):
1. Military dugout behind the lines, France; 1917; watercolour: brown, black and blue wash over pencil; artist: William Redver Stark, 1885–1953; source: W.R. Stark/Library and Archives Canada.
2. Communication Trench. 22nd Infantry Battalion (French Canadian). July, 1916; source: Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-000395.
3. On sentry duty in a front-line trench, Sept. 1916, France; source: W.I. Castle/Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-000568.
4. An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the opposing trenches and no-man's land between Loos and Hulluch in Artois, France, taken at 7.15 pm, 22 July 1917. German trenches are at the right and bottom, British trenches are at the top left. The vertical line to the left of centre indicates the course of a pre-war road or track; source: Imperial War Museum, catalogue number Q 45786
5. A trench on the Canadian front showing "funk holes," 1917, France; source: W.I. Castle/Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-001326.
6. A British trench near the Albert-Bapaume road at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. The men are from A Company, 11th Battalion, The Cheshire Regiment; photographer: Lt. J.W. Brooke; source: Imperial War Museum catalogue number Q 3990. Used by permission PD-BritishGov.
7. Bombing down a trench (8th Infantry Battalion). June, 1916; source: Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-000136
8. First World War Soldier with Trench Foot (No Doubt a Canadian), France, 1917. This photo shows an extreme case of trench foot; source: Library and Archives Canada/PA-149311.
9. Report by Colonel G.L. Foster, Surgeon General, Regarding Soldiers Suffering from Trench Foot, November 11, 1915. This report about the occurrence of trench foot among the ranks and the prevention of this problem shows how significant this medical condition was in the eyes of military authorities; source: Library and Archives Canada/RG9 III-B-2, vol. 3615, file 25/7/1-25/7/6.
10. Document by Surgeon General Regarding Vincent's Angina, ca. 1917. This document describes the problem of Vincent's Angina and its chief causes, namely, the failure to disinfect eating and drinking utensils and the sharing of pipes or cigarettes. Life in the trenches made soldiers especially susceptible to this type of problem since it was impossible, under such conditions, to wash dishes or obtain other tobacco products; source: Library and Archives Canada/RG9 III-B-2, vol. 3615, file 25/4/2-25/6/2.
Sources: “The Trench System,” Spartacus Educational website, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtrenchsystem.htm, accessed 11 February 2009; “Trench Warfare,” The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. II, Micropedia Ready Reference, 15th ed. (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2005); “Trench Foot” and “Trench Warfare,” The Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, vol. 27 (Danbury, CT: Grolier, Inc., 2001); “Dugouts,” Spartacus Educational, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWdugouts.htm, accessed 7 October 2008; “Trench Warfare,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_warfare, accessed 7 October 2008. - Links & References
- “Dugouts,” Spartacus Educational website
- diagram of a trench at SchoolHistory website
- “Trench Warfare,” Wikipedia
- diagrams and more information on trench warfare at Spartacus Educational website
- Bairnsfather cartoon “The Communication Trench” (from More Fragments from France, vol. 2, p. 25)
- Bairnsfather cartoon “The New Submarine Danger” (from More Fragments from France, vol. 2, p. 37)
- Bairnsfather cartoon “Those Tubular Trenches” (from More Fragments from France, vol. 2, p. 43) showing HQ in a dugout
- Bairnsfather cartoon “What time do they feed the sealions, Alf” (from More Fragments from France, vol. 2, front cover)
- Bairnsfather cartoon "My Dug-Out" (from Fragments from France, p. 4)
- Pictures
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urge
- Note
- This word does not make sense. It is possible that Ross meant to write irk and absent-mindedly wrote urge instead because of its similar sound.
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War Diary
Working parties as usual. Lewis Gun and Rifle Grenade Classes in afternoon. Divine service in the afternoon. Officers on reconnaissance. CASUALTIES. 1 O.R. Died of Wounds.
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