Mexico weekly ledger., 1915-11-18
BRITISH SOLDIER WRITES
MEXICO RELATIVES OF W,

~ RELATIVES OF WAR
Describing the famous fight at Loos
end Hill 70 as graphically as an eye
witness a who is in the thick of the
battle himself Sergeant John Calvert,
of the British Army. wrote his sister
in-law, Mrs. Gus Sunnen, Of this city,
a letter from the hospital where he
is recovering from wounds, telling
his memories Of that fearful clash.
The letter follows and is a human doc
ument Of the intimate side Of war
fare n seldom reads and throws a
light on the conditions in war-ridden
Europe which it is almost impossible
for US in this country to realize.
Dear Brother and Sister:
Oct p, 19l5.-I take great pleas
ure Of writing you a line just to let
you know that / am in a military hos
pital wounded but getting on all right,
hoping you are the same.
Well, ! have been through the
mill again and had a rough time Of
It Our battalion went into action on
the 25th Of September. in one. Of the
biggest fights ever known in worlds
history and both sides paid dearly for
it. 1t was a terrible affair, too ter
rible to describe in a letter. You
might have heard about it. 1t was
at Loos and Hill 10. The fighting
in Loos was a fright on Saturday the
18th. Trampling over dead and
wounded we drove the enemy out by
hand-to-hand fighting at the point Of
the bayonet. The shouts and groan-
ing of the wounded were awful-some
laying with legs off and heads
burst by shells, others crying out for
Mother, some for their children, and
soon, the poor men laying bleeding
to death. Their lives could have been
saved if medical aid had been there.
The Red Cross has a hard task, SO
many to attend to.
We drove the enemy out Of the vii
lage but We lost heavily and at day
light on the Sunday morning, the 18th,
we had to advance and charge up Hill
70, which is just outside of Loos, and
we got moved down like corn, but we
still went forward and into the clash
again. All of our officers were killed
or wounded. | was lucky, thank
God. | got a bullet through the left
hand and | had been hit in the knee
before so was weak with the less Of
blood I had had nothing to eat for
two days, and worst of all nothing to
drink Result, tainted away. I came
to, all right very quickly.
! slipped off my traps and crawled
for about 300 yards on my stomach,
The bullets were whizzing past my
cars, and the ground shook with the
big gun fire from both sides. l man
aged to escape and get back into a
little town Of safety with just an odd
shell bursting once in a while, but
that is nothing when you have been
used to the other. And / got the
wounds dressed and a long wanted
drink, and then some tea and some
thing to eat.
] was sent down the country to
Havre and the dressing officer wanted
10 give me a ride which was about a
mile to the Red x Motor Vans which
run the wounded down to the station.
He said, "Get in, Sergeant" / said,
mo Sir, thank you. You will need
your car for wors than me in a few
minutes" Because a lot of poor
chaps were coming as fast as they
could, bobbling along with broken
legs and other hurts and could not
walk very good, and ] could, and SO,
set out to walk, feeling good after
my feed. ! was sent to a hospital in
Hayre, France, and was there two
days, and from there to England and
landed in this hospital on the first Of
October, and will soon recover
You will hear lots Of tales about
the dirty tricks that are being done,
but there is good and bad in all class
cs. Two Of our boys were captured
wounded. The Germans dressed their
wounds and sent them back into our
lines again. Some will kill the
wounded and others are kind hearted
and will treat you like men, but such
lie war. II is Kill, Kill, and Slaughter
all the time. 1t is a shame to the
world. It is Hell on Earth and worse
than that.
Well, dear brother and sister, J
win come to a close. Just now a few
wounded have come into this ward
from the front all mud and clay.
Poor fellows, they viii be ready for a