ROY CROSGREY WRITES.
The following letter has been received from Gunner Roy Crosgrey, who is at the front with Major Ralston's Battery. It was written May 17th.
We have just been in a big scrap which I must not mention, but I suppose you will know about it. The Battery was discovered and shelled every time we started to fire after we were there a couple of days. We went into action with two guns of another battery attached to us on one side of a farm house and two French 75 batteries went on the other. The farm house was occupied at the time by an old man and his wife and son. When they began to shell us we stayed on the guns all afternoon and kept firing. We certainly were very lucky as only Sergeant Boone of Peterborough and a gunner from the two guns that were attached to us were killed, and about ten wounded and sent to the hospital. Scottie Munn got his when he and Hall were taking the Major's dinner up to the observation point. Hall was only scratched, but poor Scottie had his legs pretty well shot up, and one hit him in the stomach and was not discovered until he was in the hospital. The officers around there got suspicious of the people in the house as they had seen them leading a cow around in front of each gun and they searched the house and found carrier pigeons, wireless apparatus, and a sliding hole in the roof to let the pigeons out. They were arrested, turned over to the French, tired and shot. There were a lot of spies around there. One old lady was caught flashing a mirror at a German aeroplane.
One of our guns was completely destroyed with an ammunition wagon, and another had a shell go through the shield without exploding until it hit the ground. The crew was on the gun and the shell went through but the crew on the other had just left.
They changed the position of the guns but were found again but the shelling was not nearly so bad. One shell hit one of our horses square in the neck and knocked the head clear off it, and a piece hit a horse just behind in the throat and they had to kill it. The next shell killed seven French horses on the other side of the field. We were in action about seventeen days and went back for a three day's rest and have been near where we were first in action for about two days. We expect another move anytime now. All the rest are well and hope everybody at home is the same.
Write soon.
ROY.
