BX October 6, 1915
Canadians Trek To Somme Front – Corp Dan Cook Tells of the Long March From the Ypres Salient South
An interesting story of a recent big trek made by the Canadians in Flanders is told in a letter received by Mr. Daniel Cook, 13 Morrell Street, from his son, Corporal D.J. Cook. Corporal Cook writes as follows:
My Dear Father,
I am in splendid condition and of course you will have seen by the papers that we Canadians were making a move to another section of the line and I guess it will interest you somewhat to know we are now practically at our destination and before many hours hope to be in the thick of it. The move necessitated a lot of heavy marching all the time in full kit, but it was a rather pleasurable exchange for our late experience of shells and trench mortars, in that well know salient. On our journey, fortune favored us with the very finest of roads and nearly always the weather was in our favor. While our day’s journey ended at different points, a bed of straw or hay certainly rivaled a feather bed for solid comfort the further we went ahead. It was pleasant to notice the weather we gradually left behind us, the clay-mud we had so long known as “Flemish mud,” and drifted into a land of hard solid chalk, thus far, preferable underfoot conditions.
Well dad, today as perhaps you may remember is the “fini” of one year of active service at the front and without any boasting whatever it can only be said that the Canadians as a whole have done splendid work during their first year of service. It is to their credit that they have held a very strategic front for so long a while, taking it over in the first instance in a very precarious state and during their occupation fortifying, rebuilding and remodeling and instituting new ideas until, when the boys of Canada left it was a fortress of no mean proportions and calling forth all the ingenuity made in Germany to make any serious break in it. Conditions have often been very adverse while, even to live in the trenches has been at times very ticklish work, calling forth every store reserve of fortitude that a man may possess.
The long march after our move was naturally very tedious, for tis no child’s play to foot it over many dozens of miles of hills and dales, so much in evidence in France, and carry a full equipment (fighting) of 70 odd pounds or so; but our boys were as usual patient and right on the job so that the present finds us ready to fill any breach that may need a re-filling of “non-resisters” and anxious to show our opponents a sample of the true strain of the Dominion we so proudly represent.
Your loving son,
Dan
