Feature Letter of May 18th, 2024
Rowat, Thomas Alexander
France, 1917
We have had good weather here since Apl. 24th but day before yesterday it rained as we came in here, but sunshine prevailed again to-day, and trees certainly look very green and nice. There are lots of wild flowers out now and strange to say there are quite a lot of partridges around the battle area. Last night we saw four, two of them seemed quite tame. It is contrary to orders for men to do shooting of any kind except on a rifle range or in the front line at the Hun. Last time we were in the second line and two of our men shot partridges and cooked then for breakfast in the trenches, the men in the first line complained about it, and we had to warn them to cease. I saw two rabbits too between our first and second lines, last time we were in. They were shelling at the time and when a shrapnel shell would burst near them they would run as if terrified almost to death.