SABBATH NIGHT, APRIL 4, 1915.
Things have been very quiet to-day, possibly because it is Easter Sunday. While you were at Church this morning, I was mending a little bridge over a ditch that forms the entrance to my transport field, and, later in the day, I had to ride several miles to see the new billets.
FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1915.
There isn't much news this evening to tell you about. The day has been filled up so far as it has gone by various duties, none of them of special importance. I have been working a good deal of late at deadening the noise made by my wagons on the road. A good deal of improvement has already been effected, both on the wagons themselves and on the harness, so that they are less likely to be heard at a distance on quiet nights, as they go up to the trenches.
MONDAY, MAY 3, 1915.
I had a treat this afternoon. I went to the Church of this town, which is quite a large building with coloured glass windows. Many candles were burning at the Altars and Shrines, the sun was shining on the coloured lights, and the organ was being played. Oh, what a sound it is to hear in the midst of such surroundings after six weeks of silence! The louder it swells, the higher it lifts you through heights that are limitless in the grandeur of their feeling.... To-night I can hear the Church chimes striking 9.30, and what a strange sound it is to the accompaniment of the crack, crack of the rifles as they go off, not many miles away, but quite distinct in the stillness.
It was some weeks before they had their real Baptism of Fire. The story of that also must be told in Captain Lusk's own words:—
10.45 p.m., MONDAY NIGHT,
MAY 10, 1915.
I am pretty tired to-night, but I must write a line to let you know that I am well and safe, and so are John and Erskine and all our other Officers. We have all been through a big fight—the others have been more in the centre of it than I have. Regiments near us have suffered heavily, but we have been particularly fortunate. But I must tell you about it to-morrow. I had an experience last night between 9 and 11 p.m. that you can have no conception of. Our side started an attack by the usual Artillery bombardment of the German lines, followed by an Infantry advance.[[3]] This advance was not made by our Battalion, who remained in the same line of trenches throughout the fight.