A FIRE CAUSED BY LONG-RANGE BOMBARDMENT
Photographed from an aeroplane
FLIGHT-SUB-LIEUT. WARNEFORD, V.C., AND HIS MORANE "PARASOL"
XXXV.
To his Mother.
No. 1 Wing, R.N.A.S., B. Squadron, B.E.F.
19th June, 1915.
Dearest Mum,
It's ages since I wrote, but it can't be helped, as I have been so awfully busy. For the last week I have been in the neighbourhood of La Bassée, and of course by now you have seen in the papers all about the heavy fighting there. The bombardment was terrific, quite impossible to describe. One day, in the afternoon, I saw it all from above. The small section of trenches they were shelling was simply a mass of smoke and dust, a perfect hell. In the evening of the same day I went out in a car to a point of vantage about three miles behind the line. It was a wonderful sight. Though not near enough to see the infantry advancing, we had, all the same, a fine view. Whenever there was a slight lull in the firing, we heard the maxims and rifles hard at it.
There is no mistaking the battle line in this part of the world—a long, narrow winding blighted patch of land, extending roughly N. and S. as far as the eye can see. In the middle of it two rows of trenches, in places only 50 yards apart, stand out very conspicuously. These are our first line and that of the Huns. Behind each are the second and third lines, with little zigzag communicating trenches between. It is most interesting. There are some beastly Archies [anti-aircraft guns] though, which come unpleasantly near first shot. Machines are being hit day after day.