Feature Letter of :

May 25, 2013

Richardson, Charles Douglas

May 25, 1916

Dear Edna:

I did not get this posted yesterday so am adding a line this morning. We just arrived back at 4 a.m. from our working party and we had the liveliest time I have seen yet. We were pushing small cars along a miniature railway behind reserve trenches when all at once Fritz spotted us and began sending over iron rations.

Steve, Hawthorne and I were pushing the same car when a shell burst about 15 yds. away and spattered us with mud from head to foot. Steve dropped off the railroad into a ditch full of water and got soaked. Then another shell blew the track just ahead of us to smithereens and another behind us dropped fairly in the middle of the rails and tore up about 30 feet of trench mats that were set between the rails.