Cardiff, South Wales
Dear Sister,
I guess you will be wondering how I am getting along. Well I am getting along fine. My arm is healed up fine and the pain has left my leg. It only feels numb. Gee this is a swell place! We had a concert last night in the big ward and they pull us all out to see it. It was grand. Say, I think being wounded is only a joke. I was to go on X-ray yesterday but they made a mistake and took the fellow next to me. What a joke! I guess I will go on today. When we went to France we landed at Le Havre and then went to Messines, Belgium, then to Dickebusch where I seen Basil in Front Line, then to my old stay at Ypres. There I was at Hooge, Sanctuary Wood, Observatory Ridge, Mount Sorrel, Hill 60, and at the Bluff. The Bluff is where Basil was wounded. I stayed in the neighbourhood of Ypres 5 months and say you ought to see the beautiful city of Ypres! Knocked as flat as a pancake! I certainly have had some experience. There was a spell of 20 days that I never heard a gun but when we landed at the Somme, good night! I seen Percy Veale when I was going in down there. He says, "Still on your feet, Mac", and I said "You bet". Well we went up the line and just as we got in the order came of over the top. So away we went after the Boches under the severest fire ever known in this war. We took their front line easy. The poor fellows! All they do is throw down their rifles and yell "mercy comrade" but we gave them mercy alright - straight through the dome. Prisoners are easy taken but I would sooner take a crack at them. Well I got a few and they ain't lying in a hospital either. Well we went over top 3 times that day but I stopped going over the third time. I went as far as I could. O, I am 100 times better off now. Just imagine - a broken leg - why a person couldn't wish for a better Blighty. Six weeks or so in bed and limp till the duration is my motto. I don't want to be called a brave soldier. No more of France for me if I can get out of it. I was in hospital Rouen for a rest one day. Some place! You talk about scenery - sailing from Rouen to Le Havre on River Seine with good Red Cross ship (Aberdonian) bound for England. Gee the people use you white around here. I have six pretty dolls come to see me twice a week. They bring me every thing but smokes and I wish you could send me some. I will have to pay you back some day for the parcel which you sent me in France. They damn near starve you. By golly, those parcels which I got just saved my life. There is so much to be done, they can only get so much grub to the boys. I reckoned up my pay book yesterday and I have $235 owed to me at the end of September. Gee I will have a lot more yet. Do you think the government will foot the bill at the end of the war? Well I guess I will close hoping I am lame till duration of war. Gee I am lucky.
Your affec. bro. Corporal A. MacKinnon #6 Ward, #3 Western General Hospital, Splott Road, Cardiff, South Wales
PS Gee I have got some decorations on my tunic - 2 stripes on each arm with the machine gun sign and I will be able to put on gold stripe on left arm - wounded sign.