Fit as Fiddles and as Hard as Nails

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[9th October 1918] I rather envy Livy going to live under Slieve na Mon I suppose the house must be somewhere near the River Anner.
Best love to all
Henry

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9th October [1918]
Dear Mother

I am returning Livy’s letter as I see you want it back. I enclose a picture for Fanny which I picked up in an old shell hole it looks nice and bloodthirsty and I think must be some of our propaganda though what the meaning of it is is more than I can tell. I am having a very quiet time throwing bricks into shellholes along the road.
As far as I can see we wont ever have much work to do out here again as there seem to be three times the number of RES here to do the amount of work required. This is due I think to the number of special companies such as tunneling companies who had there own special work in the time when the line was fairly steady & who are now acting as field companies.
Im glad your going down to [?Anne Gift] and hope you’ll have nice weather for it as the Country should be very nice now.

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[7 October 1918] I am out on detachment now away from the company which is generally a good business but there is so little to do I’m very bored I wish I had my gun.
I got two letters from you in quick succession with Livies description of Cool na Muck it certainly is a wonderful spot. I’m sorry to hear Roby didnt get leave but with luck we’ll hit it off together about Xmas
Best love to all
Henry

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7th October [1918]
Dear Mother we are now in a nice quiet part evacuated by the Bosche the only objection I have to it is that we do absolutely no work. The Bosche has left behind him an enormous number of reinforced concrete dugouts mostly about 4 ft thick in which we are now living. They must have taken him years to make and been very costly in every way. The wonder is that though he has gone to so much useless work on concrete dugouts he has never made any attempt even 7 or 8 miles back from his old line to cultivate the land. Partridge are very plentiful though you dont see them very often as the cover is so thick they seem to like old shell holes & weedy desolate land which is a queer taste

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[19th June 1918] nest only about 6 feet off the ground and is not the least disturbed if the British army goes in & studies him. His great trick is taking dead flies off the end of a straw which we poke up to him and we hope after a bit to get him to eat them out of our hands.
No letters from you since Livy wrote last but I expect to get some tomorrow.
We have had a good pour of rain which has freshened up the whole country though making everything very muddy.
The general has been round inspecting us today which was a bad business however we got out of it fairly easily and well.
Best love to all
Henry

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(France. Wednesday 19th June [1918])
Dear Mother

I have just heard that if all goes well I will leave the company on leave next Sunday week and should be home about this day fortnight 14 Days from Boulogne to Boulogne which will be about 11 days at home I think.
We are still training which is a bit slow at times but has its points.
I have been watching Hayes kill rooks with his little rifle he is perfectly marvellous and never misses if he gets half a chance up to date he has shot about two dozen and an odd magpie as well. I have had a few shots but can do no good at all.
We have got a great swallow in the cow house here he has a

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[1918] showing off while I should have been listening to a lecture on gas they flung grass at one another for a long time but got tired of this and started calling one another names. I couldnt understand the french ones but they tried English once and this what they produced Saucy Ya Salaan
I thought it an expression worth some chocolate & whacked it out when the gas was finished.
No letters from you for long while now but I expect some tomorrow.
How is the leg.
Best love to all
Henry

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(France [1918])
Dear Mother we are expecting to move any time so I am writing as I may not get another chance for some time.
We had a big air raid on some towns about five miles away last night. I’m glad to say they didn’t see fit to drop anything on us but they were buzzing about for 2 or 3 hours overhead the unfortunate inhabitants were very frightened quite naturally and spent most of the night collected together in a few houses praying and crying. I cant help laughing at it now but it was very pathetic then.
We were suitably frightened and impressed as all the houses shook whenever a distant bomb went off however we went to bed and hoped for the day.
I was watching two school children

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(15th June [1918]) Will you thank Barney for his card with the addresses which I got all right at present it doesn’t look as if I would get anywhere near any of them but you never know.
How are the trout in the dam this year
Best love to all
Henry

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(15th June [1918]) should be very effective if used in large enough numbers. We also sat for an hour while an infernal fellow threw gas bombs at us. I must say our masks are very effective and cool but would be horribly uncomfortable if you had to sit many hours in them.
We are having a bad drought here hardly a drop of rain since we landed with bad results for the hay and oats unless we have lots of rain soon however it gives the people a great chance to clean their fields at which they are working early and late practically the whole population from 12 to 100 with the exception of the young men most of whom are now killed and missing.
I have only met one man of military age and he was wounded early in the war later getting exempted from military service as his sixth child was born now he expects to be called up again but doesn’t seem worried at it at all.