Dear wife and daughter,

I’m very happy to know that you both are okay. I also miss you a lot. Here things aren’t great. Life conditions are awful. We work a lot. We spend most of the time building trenches on the battlefield. In the trenches, there are a lot of rats and sometimes a bunch of water that covers us until the knees. We sleep in the trenches. We must find a place to spend the night. Including me, most of the soldiers can’t sleep well because of the cold, the mice that enter our clothes and sometimes of hunger. We live like animals! These trenches that I’ve been talking about are like underground corridors which aim is to defend.

The war is traumatizing. You see so many deaths and loss of your mates that make it very difficult to continue fighting. But I guess it is part of the war.

As you read the newspaper, you might have heard about the battle of Ypres. Ypres is a town in the south of Belgium. In this battle, we, the British and the rest of the Allied forces pushed the Germans line in a concave bend. But they held the higher ground and were able to fire into our trenches. While the enemy was shooting to us, the wind was favorable to them and they used the secret weapon; the mustard gas. This is a poisonous gas that makes you choke to death when you inhale it.

By the time the gas wasn’t released yet, I was fighting. When suddenly a German hit my friend Marcus. I rapidly attended him and took him to the interior of the trench where a doctor was. While the doctor was healing Marcus the three of us saw that the rest of the soldiers were chocking. Thank God I was with the doctor that knew what was happening and gave me a towel to cover my nose and mouth to not inhale the gas. After a few minutes, the battlefield was a calmed sea of dead soldiers. It was horrible, terrifying, I couldn’t even watch. From now on, we must wear gas masks in case there are more gas attacks.

Now, it is 7 pm. I’m on a car heading south towards France. By the time you read this letter, I’ll be making a trench or finish making and prepare for another battle.

I love you so much. The girls of my life.

From your loving husband and father.