Harrogate Herald - 24th November 1915
Corporal Mitchell Dunn writes :
November 13th, 1915.
Thanks for the Herald I have received tonight. We are now out of the
trenches after having been in for 11 days. We had a very wet time;
but we have nothing to do with the weather, only stand our turn in
the trenches and risk it. Nothing of any importance occurred, only
the daily shelling about noon. One day I saw the end of an old barn
blown into dust. I was not sorry when we were relieved. We moved
into billets at about 2½ or 3 miles away from the firing line, and
on Friday morning were shelled out of our billets. Some men ran,
even with their full pack on. The enemy had the range, but a great
number of their shells were "duds" - dummy. A few were
hit, but the billets were soon cleared and only one of our battalion
was hit. We moved back to our place before we went into the trenches
this last time, and have heard the place has been shelled again
today and done a lot of further damage to what had already been
done. I don't know where we shall get to, but we move again
tomorrow. Since coming out of the trenches we have had a deal better
weather than when in. a sight, I don't expect will ever be seen in
England, to be seen here, is our field kitchens doing their work in
the main street of the town, outside our billets. By the way, B
Company (my company) are billeted again in a mill. I shall have to
be closing, for if I was to go on writing, I should maybe be a
torment to the censor. I have heard this last week that an old chum
of mine, Willie Lawn, at the Dardanelles, has seen my photo in your
Herald a number of weeks back. Moving has its comical side, although
very tedious. The mail tonight has been very heavy with parcels, but
the lads fasten them on to their equipment in some manner and still
go on, not heeding the extra weight. At time I have thought some
could have done with a transport. I am quite well, but the weather
here makes one have fear of being frostbitten, and particularly so
with having to stand and move about in the water as we have been
doing. Every help is made to prevent such, for daily, when in the
trenches we rub our feet with whale oil. Wishing you and your paper
the best of luck.
Harrogate Herald - 1st December 1915
Corporal Mitchell Dunn writes :
November 21st, 1915
: Thanks for your Herald. We are in the trenches, but I understand
we shall be relieved tomorrow evening and move into the reserve. We
have held these trenches before, and I am pleased to tell you they
are in a very dry state considering the rain we have had lately. The
weather is very frosty, but we have not had any snow as you have had
at Harrogate. It is cold enough here without it. Our first draft of
married men are going at 5 o'clock to come over home for a clear
seven days leave in England. This is the first party to come, so
naturally we consider them very fortunate to draw first leave. We
shall all get leave sooner or later though. Wishing you every
success with your Herald.
Harrogate Herald - 15th December 1915
Cards from Soldiers
M Dunn
Harrogate Herald - 22nd December 1915
Mitchell Dunn, of the 10th Duke of Wellington's, writes :
Thanks
for the Herald I received with last night's mail. I will try and
pencil a letter for you and your readers to read of the state of the
trenches and the country about. We are out of the trenches now until
Tuesday night after having been in for four days. It was for ever
raining, so we were not blessed with good weather. Referring to the
trenches, he adds : Here the Germans had the best of us, for we
could see they were pumping the water out of theirs into "no
man's land", and it drained through down to us. We were in
trenches by ---- to the right of -----. The huts we are now billeted
in are in a mass of puddle nearly knee deep. It's great! On Friday
morning we had a lively two hours. The Germans were bombarding us.
They did very little damage withy their "coal boxes". They
made plenty of firewood for us, for they felled a few trees behind
our line. I am sure the Germans have ample supply of "iron
rations" sent over to them by our artillery. It was great. I
think we had five in the battalion hit during the bombardment, so we
were very lucky.
