France, May 23, 1916
Dear Sister,
Received your letter of May 7 and was certainly glad to receive it. Say, I have been writing and answering every letter I receive here but I suppose they never reach their destination. You say we have been in some hard fighting. Well it hasn't been too bad yet but we are holding our own every time. We never step back at all. The last time we was in I didn't know whether I was going up in air or what was happening. Our dugout got smashed to pieces 10 minutes after I got out of it. My poor old pack, everything I owned, got buried and smashed. I never dug them out. I got a new rig out. Fritz got pretty near on top of us but we were far too strong for him. I am going into action tonight. I have been out for 16 days and in that rest I was up to Front Line 5 times. Well I suppose you know by the papers where our battalion is. It seems funny to pick our casualties out of the list in Toronto papers. You could tell our casualties by the number 452. Say, Ronnie certainly has some nerve to come here. I'll bet $100 he will want to get out quicker than he comes in. I am stationed only 2 miles from Basil Wansbro and I never see him. I wrote a card to him 1 month ago and he never answered it. I don't know what is the matter. His battalion have had a hard battle lately. Well you know, I suppose, how things are over here. I am Jake so far but I get it hard sometimes but it is surprising how we make poor old Fritz shut up. We can make them so as they won't fire a shot. The motorcycles here never go less than 60 miles an hour. On these roads - some speed! Jack is getting a motorcycle. It is the best thing he can do and stay and ride it. Nothing like taking a tip from father Herb who shouldn't get sore on him for that. I have had more rides in autos and buses over here than I ever had before. I received 3 parcels from you in last letters. You say I have another coming. It will likely be here in a few days. Well you say Herb's birthday is on May 8th. I wish I was there to celebrate it. We are going to celebrate Queen Victoria's tomorrow. She is the Kaiser's grandmother and King George and the Kaiser are cousins so you can imagine how the fireworks will be. I must close.
Your affec. bro. Archie
PS The girl thought I was not writing enough to her so she sent me some paper and envelopes and a book of stamps. Do you know why she sent me stamps?