From: France
Sun., 14 Apr. 1918

Dearest Mother -

Since writing to you last week, I have received another of your letters, that of March 17. Do you know I was just thinking I don't believe that I have missed a single one of your letters and I guess the only one you have missed is that one with photos in. That is pretty good, is it not? I sent you a couple of different photos two or three weeks ago and I think in this, I shall enclose still another of them and try and tell you about the fellows in it as I did in the letter that is lost.

The picture was taken last January, about a couple of weeks after Casey and I came back from Paris. Our battery was out on rest then and Otty was about to leave for England, so we wanted to get the group taken before he left. It is taken in the backyard of the French lady who took it.

Standing on the left, we have Gunner Kenneth McIvor Kent of Westmount, Montreal. He is the youngest of the five, about 19 or 20 and since he came to battery in April, has been at the guns most of the time on the same gun crew as myself. He is limber gunner - that is, he looks after the cleaning and taking care of the gun and is a good all round gunner & good fellow. Standing on the right is Gr. Kelly who came about same time as Kent and is also from Montreal. He is older and is with us a good deal on the gun crew. Seated on the left is Bombardier Cortlandh Otty from New Brunswick - an old timer in the Battery. He has three years off at University of New Brunswick and is now in England training to be an officer of Artillery. He is very clever - has a brother killed & another in this battery - comes from a good old family - look at his full name - Lawrence Cortlandh Dickson Otty. We hear from him occasionally - he should make a real good officer. Next is the young lad who lived at the house we stayed at - the five of us were in the same house - Alphonse Jaille(?). These people are refugees. Both he & his father work in the mines. He has on Otty's hat & Otty has on his - a French soldier's cap. Last, we have Karl Moulton Clark who is of the old 54th battery. He is about five or six months younger than I am and is my special friend - the one I went to Paris with. We call him Casey. He too is a gunner in "E" subsection which is the subsection I was in until they gave me that confounded stripe. They transferred me then to "C" subsection and I am not with these fellows as much as I used to be. Just now they are at the guns, while I am at the wagon lines and I rarely see them.

Your Bombardier (Bdr.) Brown may not be at the guns now as much as he used to be. Casey comes from Brantford where most of those 54th boys come from. As I explained in another letter, of these five, Otty is now in England taking out a commission, Kent & Kelly are trying to get a commission in the infantry and Casey is trying for the corps and as I told you, I think I will try to go thru with Casey for the flying corps.

You remember I had over a month last Nov. somewhere in Flanders - a very wet & muddy month it was. I think I may tell you now that there we had no covering except a little camouflage for the guns. It was worked in shifts - two men & an N.C.O. would spend 24 hrs at the guns where was not place to sleep or anything, while the other three of the crew rested about a thousand yards back in billets. It chanced that the billet we had only had for a covering, a sheet of canvas & half inch boards. It was dry and we could sleep there but you see, it was not shell proof at all. Now, on one shift there was Otty in charge, Kent & myself, while Kelly, Casey & another N.C.O. took the other shift. We had a month of it with no protection in probably the most dangerous position I have yet been in. If it had not been for the mud, we would have been wiped out by flying splinters dozens of times. But, you see, the soft mud made it so that many shells failed to explode at all, while those that did, merely sent up mud & water. I hope I am not saying too much but there I have had shells & even bombs from aeroplanes light within a few yards, even feet of me. It was a great relief to get away from that position. You can understand how a few fellows living together thru things of that nature will get to know & respect one another. You can understand too how I hated to leave that subsection when I was given this stripe.

And now dear mother, Ido hope you get this OK. I will be eager to know that you get it. And I hope that by this time that Grandma is much better & that Gladys is making good at Gananoque - that Harold & Cecil made their exams & that everybody is well.

Very best of love to all.
Yours affectionately,
Gordon