Informal letters from the frontline to home - 6F

This week saw the class getting into character as WW1 frontline soldiers, writing to their loved ones during the festive season. We thought about how they would have felt and what they might have asked about. Have a look at the first half of Melanie's below:

Flanders Fields,

North Belgium,

26 December 1915

 

Dear beloved wife,

As I write this letter, the festive season of winter is falling upon us. I thought that I would write to you because I have a heavy heart as I am apart from you and our baby girl. I miss you all terribly and some days, I get the feeling that my heart is a wrecked sunken ship being battered and swallowed whole by the ravenous seas of despair that is this war. I haven’t written to you since last year because we constantly go for inspections such as: Trench Foot, diseases and uniform. The nights are gradually getting colder and colder. Also, today, an extraordinary event happened… I will tell you later in this letter!

For now, please tell me about our cheeky monkey! Have you thought of a good name for her? I have an idea; how about Monica? Oh yes! Have you taught her how to treat the cats (Clio, Tickles, Chloe, Octavia and Riley)? I can imagine her sleeping in her colourful cradle, being lulled to sleep by your beautiful singing; as graceful as a nightingale. I feel quite regretful for coming to war because I haven’t seen the face of my own child.

Anyway, let’s go back to my extraordinary experience: I was sitting in our raggedy, rat- infested trench, yearning to be with you and “Monica”. When all of a sudden, sounds caught my ear. Soothing sounds. I heard quiet, calm singing coming from a trench; a German trench. I didn’t understand the words but that song…one of my favourite carols…Silent Night. It filled no-man’s-land with peace and joy. The words were sung “Stille Nachte…Stille Nachte”. Once it stirred us up, we were whispering it… then humming it…then singing it…then shouting it! After that carol class, I slept on the crumbly floor - which was my bed.