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Date: May 24th 1917
To
Donald McMillan
From
Capt. J.G. McMillan
Letter

THE HUN NOW SEEING REAL WAR

Capt. J.G. McMillan, writing to his father, Donald McMillan, Largie, from France under date of April 24, says in part:

This is a magnificent day. I was up to see the work this morning, and when coming back passed an aeroplane that had come down in flames. Both the pilot and observer escaped, one, however, may have been seriously injured by the explosion of their ammunition. On a day like this the observation balloons are up in numbers and the artillery is busy. There is no special activity in our part of the line. We could hear the guns in a continuos roar on the morning of April 9th at Vimy Ridge. I believe there is another attack on at present. The weather has been clear to hear well. We get bulletins twice a day when there is any considerable movement on, and at that time get the news a day before it goes to press.

I have not been around this spring to see what the farmers are doing. I was at headquarters for four days at Easter, and previous to that was twenty-three days in the forward area. Seeding was going on at Easter, but it was still cold at nights. The Hun is beginning to see war as the real thing, not as the easy walk-over of the early days of the war. It is to be hoped that Russia will start in to keep up her end differently than she has done for the last year. Personally I look for great things from them. Artillery counts for a great deal in this war, and Russia has not been a great country industrially. Then, too, she unfortunately lost her largest manufacturing centres in Poland.