Letter to Mother from Somewhere in France

#782373
Some where in France
7-27-17[sic]

Dear Mother:–

After I went to bed in my funk hole last night I could see out the door, rather the hole that might have a door hung but hasent, and the half moon was sinking nicely in west. oh. It was glorious the night and the battle was quiet so you would not think there was any more battle on* than out home, Never mind that n in the on a big shell just burst not far away.

Just a few words on this ground that is devastated by the battles of the past years. You remember that hole beside the trail on Myres well that is an average shell hole and when all the field gets shot full like that they shoot it full again and then again and I guess by the looks a dozen times more until you can maby guess what that mixed with barbed wire and smooth wire and etc. would look like.

some of the holes are twice the size but an awful lot of them are just ¼ that size. Some of the boys were at Bill Hopkins grave last night.

There is some nice boys here one boy on the gun with me is a christian and lots of the boys talk to me on christianaty we don’t know what good it will do yet but I do pray that the boys may get right at once before they face any more of the battle field. Three of our draft have been killed and several wounded since they come  

L.

* "on" was written with a tail due to Laurie's start when the shell burst nearby.