Your Affectionate Son

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Your

So writes Frank Smith home to his parents in April 1915, one of hundreds of similar letters he wrote. Transcribed and collected here, they give a fascinating insight into the day-to-day life of a soldier serving on the Front during The Great War. He was only one of tens of thousands of other British men, and he was fortunate enough to survive. The honesty, the concern with practicalities, the humdrum of waiting, the fear and horror and the pointless destruction – they are all in the letters. A sobering, thought-provoking and inspiring read.

Your Affectionate Son: Letters from the Trenches During The First World War

You complain that I give you no idea where I am, well you know what happened last time I did, and we are warned that if we do say anything like that our letters stand a good chance of being destroyed, and then you would wonder why I had not written. We are quite a good way now from the first line about nine miles and can only hear a dim rumble of the guns and on a very still night even the crackle of rifle fire, but on fine days occasionally the German aeroplanes drop bombs on the town close by and generally manage to harm some poor innocent civilians.

AFFecTionATe Son

Letters From The Trenches During The First World War


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Your Affectionate Son by Words by Design - Issuu