"Stuart's bivvy"
Thursday. July 18th, 1918
My dear dad,
Nothing out of the ordinary has taken place today and the post will not arrive until tomorrow so my letter will necessarily be short. I turned in at 10pm yesterday eve and slept well, owing to the fact that the battery behind our trench was less noisy than usual. I was privileged to see dawn again this morning. I was on a machine gun anti-aircraft post nearby from 4-6pm and again from 2-4 this afternoon. Needless to say Fritz did not come over to trouble me, or he may (?) have been unlucky. He is very cautious as a rule and if he dares to come over our lines he is usually miles high. Evidently he has none too many planes and deems discretion the better part of valour. After breakfast and a wash I had the morning to myself and spent the time with Stuart writing a letter to Bert Cross and Harold and reading. During the morning our padre came along to say farewell to us for a little while as he is going to "Blighty" on leave for a month on Saturday - lucky man. He kindly took my letters to censor and send off early. By the way, I received a mild "bird" - if it can so be called - for writing too many letters in the line!! I have only sent in four letters for censoring since I have been here and in each case they have been within the limit - viz. 2 pages - so I think the warning unnecessary. Besides, it isn't as if I get green envelopes with any certainty; I have had three only during the whole time I have been out here which is ten weeks now. Uncle Geo is a brick; he has sent me some field-cards, evidently he has access to a good number.
This afternoon it rained a bit - it has been doing that on and off all day -. This evening after I have finished this I am going to rest a bit as I shall not get much sleep tonight.
Stuart's home address is "Mrs. C. Stuart, 43 Westover Rd., Wandsworth, S.W.18. He was unable to get a photograph of the coy so perhaps his people would like to see the one I sent you a week ago and if they like, get it copied.
I do hope that business worries will lessen as time goes on. I hope you are all well again at home.
Give my fondest love to mother, the boys, Grandma and Cooky.
All good wishes,
from your loving son,
Bert
