Dear Francis,
I was living in Ottawa when I first enrolled into the army to be a medic. I was under the impression that I could save many lives but the air here is filled with the smell of death. For the first part of my service I was on the Western Front but I was moved by my superior. At the moment I am somewhere in France and we are attacking the Germans. We had a plan to attack the Germans, using a new technology. The newest technology was a giant vehicle called a tank. Our friends, the British, had invented these tanks. Under the command of a British general who name starts with an H or something, we had a plan to attack. I think I will be a silent hero saving lives here!
Your good friend,
Matthew
Dear Francis,
I finally remembered the name of the general I mentioned in my previous letter. It was Haig. We attacked the Germans on the first day of July. That day is something that Canadians back home celebrate but here I will remember the deaths of everybody. My friend Jack was killed in No Man's Land but my dear brother Alfred, he died in my arms as I was trying to save him. This battle is now in it's fifth month! I think this battle, no, this war is pointless.I will miss Jack but I haven't heard word if Arthur is still alive either. He treated me like a little brother here. The food is also terrible here. The rats are more well fed than us though since they eat our beloved dead, which there is a lot of due to this bloody battle.
Your good friend,
Matthew
Dear Francis,
How did you sleep last night? I have problems sleeping here because the days are long and the nights are filled with screams of terror and thundering explosions. It's now colder here too. At the start of this battle it was warm but the temperature has been dropping everyday. I am covered in blood everyday from my feeble attempts to help the soldiers. The injuries are usually deadly and most of the time the wounds are infected. Soldiers are also getting sicknesses from everything around them. Why are we even in this war? It was the Europeans that started this war, so they can end it as well!
Your good friend,
Matthew
Written by M. I don't own anything. I also realized that this looked and sounded much better when it was in French.