Few regulations were more consistently ignored for the duration of the war. From 1916 onwards, men grumbled ominously about the relative abundance their officers enjoyed – believing in some instances that officers were skimming off the lion’s share of parcels sent from home – and despised those who refused to share their largesse. Soldiers wrote letters in spare moments, sometimes from front line trenches or in the calmer surroundings behind the lines. Roper, The Secret Battle 2009, p. 9, p. 93. As Marie Pireaud observed to Paul, however many tears she shed upon reading – and re-reading his letters – she “preferred to know the truth and all the truth.”[53], In the long interim from one leave to the next, troops in the British and Dominion forces could enjoy a temporary respite from the over-bearing censorship of the front-lines by using much coveted, albeit irregularly distributed green envelopes. I am yours ever, Ted.'. 'Dear Gertie, I have written two or three times recently so you may get them together. Parcels were especially important for prisoners-of-war (POWs), whose very survival often depended upon the generosity of their families and the efficiency of national relief agencies. Did you get the £1-0-0 I remitted? Private Correspondences during the First World War in Austria and Germany, in Earle, Rebecca (ed. Roper, The Secret Battle 2009, p. 94; Goebel, Stefan: Schools, in Winter, Jay and Robert, Jean-Louis (eds. The Zepp was bombed from an aeroplane above, with an incendiary bomb by a Lieutenany Robertson (Johnson?). This letter from schoolboy Patrick Blundstone to his father contains a fascinating eye-witness account of the destruction in September 1916 of a Zeppelin airship near Cuffley in Hertfordshire by William Leefe-Robinson VC. Women at home – mothers, wives, and sisters – were thus less insulated from unsettling knowledge of conditions at the front than we have long believed. I am quite alright, only anxious to get your letters. Correspondence and the parcels that periodically alleviated the misery of front-line service were critical components of wartime life for soldiers and their families. During World War One up to 12 million letters a week were delivered to soldiers, many on the front line. Letters written by children during the First World War can be just as valuable a source of information as those written by servicemen. Laurie Rogers to May Rogers, 9 June 1916. Wire is remarkably resistant to blast. [41] Conditions for rank-and-file prisoners were even worse: those whose families could not provide supplemental rations often suffered near starvation. Within the Habsburg Monarchy, for example, only 3 percent of men and 5 percent of women in Lower Austria were illiterate while 65 percent of men and 82 percent of women in Dalmatia were. Indigenous Australian soldiers fought alongside non-indigenous soldiers in World War I. Indeed, as mentioned above, the most fortunate among them – like the newly married Christine Wolf (1891-1975)– did not send packages to their men in uniform; they received them. We have no night now, the sun goes down but it never goes dark, it is eternally daylight. "Oh! A lot of the time, they didn’t. We get up at 6.30 and work until 1.00 so we put a few hours in don't we. There has been a bit of a fuss over Arthur this week. The Post Office, responsible for the delivery of the notification telegrams, was overwhelmed and my Grandmother (Who died before I was born) was not notified until the 8th of July. If circumstances permitted, they would write letters, the much preferred method of communication (especially between husbands and wives); but when circumstances or limited skill conspired against them, postcards had to suffice. Don't hold the paper money. [20] Although the British sent fewer parcels than the French they nonetheless shipped on average 60,000 parcels a day (and 4.5 million in December 1916), soon overwhelming the vast sorting facility built in Regent’s Park in 1915. I came across an article in a paper the other day about this district and it said that 14 or 15 years ago bears used to roam around hear [sic], but there seems to be nothing around now excepting the wild fowl, which are very numorous. For the duration of the war, German soldiers and civilians exchanged close to 30 billion pieces of mail, of which 7 million letters and postcards were sent home every day. Letters, whether sent from or to the front, were eagerly awaited, often committed to memory, and assigned a totemic significance; but letters and postcards were not the only evidence that a soldier remained central to his family. We have been very busy for the last few weeks and have got through a great amount of work. In nations where literacy was well-established by 1914, letter-writing was critical to the emotional well-being of soldiers and their families. During the First World War, letter writing was the main form of communication between soldiers and their loved ones, helping to ease the pain of separation.The British Army Postal Service delivered around 2 billion letters during the war. We have some relics some wire and wood framework. Xmas 1916.”[19] The marginally literate Canadian soldier, Martin Suter (1891–1955), wooed his intended bride with a series of embroidered cards which revealed both his imperfect mastery of written English and his authentic affection for the distant Flo (d. 1967): “Well Dear flo I wish that I wos home with my Dearing girl we wod hav sum tim wot do you think but I geas that we won be hom for chris I do hop that I can cum to Galt with you Deary well I ges I will clos for this tim good by best love and kises to my dear Girl flo rit sun as you can. In Germany until April 1916 and in Britain for the duration of the war, mail was censored at the company level: junior officers were responsible for reviewing all mail produced by the rank and file soldiers in their company. To concentrate exclusively on what front-line soldiers did, or did not, say in their letters home about the horrors of the war is both to misconstrue the multifaceted, conversational character of wartime correspondence and to minimize the importance of correspondence generated on the home front. Your loving son Patrick. Each time that I lowered my head I saw their crushed heads, hit by a bullet from a rifle only 13 meters away. Women and children knew what was expected of them: they were to reinforce the morale of their men-folk by reassuring them that they were loved and remembered. We should have left the ship to go away and do some work on another ship but we could not get away from our ship it was so rough. Emily. 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