Leighton, Roland, Letter, 11 September 1915

Letter, Roland Leighton dated September 11, 1915.
Description: 
to Vera Brittain

Tabs

Case Study: 
Violets from the Trenches: Selections from the Letters of Roland Leighton and Vera Brittain
Creator: 
Leighton, Roland
Source: 
letter
Date: 
11 September 1915
Place: France
Collection/Fonds: 
Contributer: 
McMaster University Libraries
Rights: 
Copyright, public domain: McMaster University owns the rights to the archival copy of the digital image in TIFF format.

Identifier: 
00001452-2
Language: 
eng
Type: 
image, audio
Format: 
jpg mp3
Transcript: 

[partial transcription; text matches the audio, not the original letter]
I have been rushing around since 4 a.m. this morning superintending the building of dug-outs, drawing up plans for the draining of trenches, doing a little digging myself as a relaxation, and accidentally coming upon dead Germans while looting timber from what was once a German fire trench. This latter was captured by the French not so long ago and it is pitted with shell holes each big enough to bury a horse or two in. The dug-outs have been nearly all blown in, the wire entanglements are a wreck, and in among this chaos of twisted iron and splintered timber and shapeless earth are the fleshless, blackened bones of simple men who poured out their red, sweet wine of youth unknowing, for nothing more tangible than Honour or their Country’s Glory or