Pictorial record of Ned Dwyer's time in France with the AIF Page 6

3-6-18 Dear Mother, Still well and going strong.  So is the little watch.  I have had a good few letters from you and Kate recently, but though you have told me that you have got the parcels, neither mentions the beads that I sent.  Kate, have they gone bush, too?  I hope not.  I also got the paper cuttings and a chewing gum as well as some world’s news.  I am also sending some cuttings with this.  I am going to send you a couple of little candles that I picked up among the ruins of the Villers Bretonneux Church a couple of days ago.  Bill has a touch of influenza and is having a rest.  Remember me to all.  I will write a long letter next week if all goes well. Love, Sonny. This will give you some idea of the size of the Amiens Cathedral.

France 6-6-18 Dear Kate, How are you all at home?  I am sorry that I cannot write oftener just now but will write a long latter at the first chance.  A little while ago my runner was transferred to H.Q.  I had to get another.  A runner must be a good cool man, reliable under all circumstances, so I picked one that I reckoned was the best for the job.  One night in the dugout we started to talk of Wooloowin and Lutwyche.  It then came out that his people have lived in Chalk St for years.  His name is J. Galloway.  Some time later Fritz paid us a couple of visits but always left in a hurry.  Will give you all the details later.  Jack was waiting along the trench to get a good shot at Fritz if he came.  He had not had too good a position in the last couple of stoushes.  When Fritz opened up with a machine gun ripping his bullets along our parapet, one of the bullets hit one of our grenades that was on the parapet, cut the pin and pushed the bomb into the trench.  Jack yelled to the man near him, ‘Look out, a bomb!’, and ducked too late.  He got about four or five pieces into him and is now in hospital.  I am glad to say that he is not dangerously wounded.  An hour after, we were relieved.  We did not have a man scratched in the stoush.  Jack had hard luck. I am well and fit. Sonny. Love to Mother and the rest.

France  7-6-18 Dear Mother, I am keeping real fit and wish you many happy returns of the day.I am glad that you got the little packet all right.  The little box that they were in I picked up in a Fritz dugout after the battle at Broodseinde Ridge on 4/10/17 (the day I got hit).  Fritz had no further use for it and it was just the thing for me.

Yes, I felt the cold last winter more than the winter before but that was, as it turned out because I had a slight touch of influenza, not enough to go sick with.  Let me know exactly what and when you get that increase.  When I write again I will tell you the amount you should get.  I remember Jim Hogan calling one day but I don’t remember the other.  Sorry to hear that he was killed.

I mentioned about Jack Galloway in my letter to Kate.  He knows Fred well.  I got the paper clippings all right but I did not get your last parcel.  Did you get my letter telling you to send them through a firm like T.C.B. or through the Red Cross?  They come quicker.  We had some papers over here with pictures of the floods, also about the Matunga being sunk.  Thanks for the medals.  I have the other yet and my beads.  The watch is being cleaned and overhauled at present.  The weather here is fine just now and my dugout nice and dry.  Did Kate get her beads yet?  You did not mention them.  Love to Kate, Fred, Clara and the youngsters, and tell Daisy that I will write to her soon.  Remember me to all. Love, Sonny.

30-6-18 Dear Kate, How are things at home now?  I am well and fit here.  Did you get the beads that I sent with those packets?  We are still busy stopping Fritz and giving him a shove back every now and then.  The Yanks want to be trained by the Aussies.  There is not much time on our hands for writing just now and there is very little that we can write about.  I hope that in a week or so I will have more time to write a long letter.  I dare say that the papers are letting you know what we are doing, and what the French and English and even the Italian papers are saying about the Australians.  The weather here is delightful at present and I hope that it continues. Love to you all, Sonny. I am going to church and possibly to the Altar tonight.  You will know long before this if anything has happened. E.J.D. 

Aberdeen Scotland 12-7-18 Dear Kate, This is a beautiful place and the people cannot do enough for one.  I don’t want to hear anyone say that the Scots are mean after this.  I was never in a place where the people were more generous or homely.  Aberdeen is rather larger than Brisbane.  The streets are narrow, but not as narrow as London streets.  Give me Scotland before England any time.  How is Mother keeping?  I hope that all is well at home.  I meant to write all sorts of long letters when I got my leave but I find that I have less time on my hands than ever.  But it is fine to sleep in a room with a nice clean bed and no sound of guns.  At the front the guns are never silent.  It is one continual roar and crash.  Trusting all well at home. Love, Sonny.

France 29-7-18 Dear Kate, Still going strong and quite fit.  Back with the boys again.  Look out for that Iron X.  I am sending it home ‘registered’.  Let me know at once when you get it.  Glad to hear that Fred is working.  I know Martin of Toowoomba.  He was wounded at Messines.  It is not Cpl, now Sgt Martin who lives up the N.C.L. near Nambour.  I have heard of Joe Smith though I have not met him yet.  He is in France.  I got the photos of Jack and Kitty all right, also of the house.  Kitty has grown.  I certainly would not have known her and she is looking well, too.  O lord! What a time I had in Scotland!  I only wish that it could have been two months instead of two weeks, then home instead of back to this.  Tell Mother to be very careful with that Iron Cross as it is about the most valuable trophy that one can get.  I was offered 25 pounds for it right here in France, so you can see that they are not too plentiful.  The other stuff, etc. I will send at another time.  At present they are safe in England. Love, Sonny.

France 7-9-18 Dear Mother, Hope that all is well at home.  I am quite well and fit. We are out for a rest at last.  We have earned it.  You know by this time that we have crossed the Hindenburg Line.  And the Yanks blame us for saving them.  They were to break through at one place.  They did, too, but let Fritz get behind them.  Then the Aussies came and Fritz went after a small scrap.  I met some Yanks and they could not get over the way our fellows cleaned up the dugouts.  In one dugout I met some Yanks and the first thing the officer said was, ‘You guys are –xx—xx—free with those –xx—xx—clam bombs of yours!’  And I laughed when he told me that when they got cut off, some of our lads started to mop up the Germans that got into the dugouts behind them.  They were at it, too, but did not leave a man at the door.  The Aussies came along and and, as usual landed a grenade and called out, ‘Come out, you ----!’  The Yanks did and as luck none were hurt.  After that they kept a good lookout for Aussies as well as Fritzes.  I think we have Fritz thinking now. Love, Sonny.

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