France
2/9/18

Dear Annie: –

I received your letter a short time ago & was glad to hear everything is going all right with you & Min.

I was very slightly wounded about a week ago & sent you a few postcards at the time. I suppose you got them. There were three of us in a small funk hole when he started shelling just behind the trench. He lengthened his range & we started to joke & laugh about it but just then he dropped one in the trench. I got hit on the forehead, just above the left eye, & in the left leg, near the knee. Neither wound is serious & I expect to be out in a week or so. The other two fared a little worse than I. Their wounds got them through to Blighty.

I suppose you read all about the push the Canadians made on the 8th of last month. I went over with the battalion in the second wave and got through all O.K. It was ideal weather for such a drive, a little misty in the early morning and then the sun coming out good & strong. The weather has been fine almost ever since. We had to cross over two sunken roads & take two woods. The tanks & cavalry met with a little hard luck & we had to carry on without any support at all. By the time we went over the infantry was too far advanced for the artillery to help much. All of his artillery that wasn't put out of action beat it early in the morning so we were up against machine gun fire only. He had a lot of strong points and machine gun nests in the woods & could sweep the open country. We advanced in short rushes & had to keep very low. We gained all our objectives on schedule time. His machine guns kept firing right up until the last minute & then the gunners threw up their hands. We took a good many more prisoners than we had casualties. There were more of his dead lying around, that is we killed more, than we had casualties altogether. It was funny to see the antics of some of the Heinies when we got over to them. One little guy was going around in circles with his hands in the air. A good many had one hand up and a souvenir in the other. I sold all the souvenirs I got excepting a pair of field glasses I sent Winnie and a rifle I sent Bill Holland.

I am in a large hospital near a little seacoast town. The hospital is on a high hill and you can get a fine view of the surrounding country, which is very beautiful.

I forgot to tell you what a fine sight we saw just before we "went over" on the 8th.

We were the second lot to "jump off" that morning & while the first lot was in the thick of it we were passing the guns that were supporting them. I never saw so many guns before and the noise they made was something awful. If the guns were placed in a single row they would easily touch wheels. As we passed over the ground the first lot took we saw only two or three of our dead but few of his got away. Nearly all of his batteries were put out of commission at the very start. Some of his transports were lying on the road all smashed up.

Hoping you are getting on as usual & that you still like Mount Pleasant.

Jack

J.A.Corcoran