Gordon Osmond - Papers

Letter to 'My dearest People' from Gordon [Osmond] in Belgium, dated 19 March 1918, describing shellfire heard on the 'Picquet' [piquet] [picket] line. (1 leaf, double-sided)

Extracts from the text read as follows:

Extract 1

"A very wet miserable day, rained hard most of the time. Shelling still going on, it’s horrible to listen to. Enemy shot I listen to & when I hear it coming know that it’s not to 'out' me. Hundreds of shells have come in night & day it never ceases.

Wed. And still the game goes one. Parts of today were very violent 4 & 5 at a time coming over & bursting with terrible crashes.

Tonight I am on Picquet [piquet] [picket] & guess I am in for a rough time. I go on at 9 & finish at midnight. Thurs. Shelling bad again, can’t make out what the devils mean by it, they rarely keep it up for such a deuce of a time. Since Sunday it has never cleared."

Extract 2

[Page 1]

"Last night on Picquet [piquet] things were very lively, dozens of shells coming over making the night hideous with their din, & to make things more anxious a few [of] their planes were hovering about. Most times I lay down flat out quickly, thinking I could hear a bomb sailing through the air. Luckily none were dropped about here. I was jolly glad when midnight came. I soon fell asleep and forgot shells & bombs."

Extract 3

[Page 2]

"Every shell fired our way we can hear distinctly fired, it’s a muffled war, shortly after you hear the roaring, squealing, whining, roaring shell you then know it’s gone past you (you feel safer), on it goes & shortly explodes with a deafening roar, throwing whatever it hits some [hundreds] of feet in the air for hundreds of yards around. When 3 or 4 come together the noise is appalling thundering, it’s nothing but crushing cascades which are indescribable. Different sizes of shells have different notes, what we are getting is big stuff about shakes the whole county. Fri 29, until this moment haven’t had a chance to write: & for some time yet won’t be able to say much. I have had a damned rough time of it one way & another, any moment may get blown to atoms. Things are at an interesting stage again what lots I’ll have to tell you if I do return. No mails are reaching us & none of ours are leaving so God knows when you’ll get this."