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G.H.Q

May: 15: 15

My dearest little Susie

I had an extraordinary interesting day yesterday. It began by being very wet
& cold but cheered up in the afternoon & was bright & jolly. We went to St Omer &
then to Hazebrouck, where I had a good talk with General French. He went over the recent fighting on the map with me & talked very frankly, & was very friendly. Then we
motored to Bailleul where Pulteney's headquarters are & I had a talk to Pulteney,
who is delightful. The Cavalry had a very heavy fight at Ypres on Monday, & as the
9th Lancers were in it I was afraid for Francis Grenfell. I went to the clearing
station where the wounded were brought in - 180 officers & over 2000 men - & old Sir A.
Bowlby took me round. Francis was not on the list. Michael Wemyss, & Dick Sutton &
Carrington's boy, Wendover, were all wounded. The wounds were chiefly shrapnel - no gas.
One poor fellow died as I was looking at him. Then I went into the gas business with the
doctors & examined sections of lungs & various horrors which would have made you sick.
Then I motored on to the front & Lord Pembroke took me up a little hill from which
we commanded the whole front from the Belgians in the north to away down to Lille.
The British & German trenches were just below us - 100 yards apart; and all the country
was green & lovely, & cows were lying in the fields & there was heaps of hyacinths & may &
I found a nest in an adjacent hedge. Shells burst at various points along
the front - at Messines & up along the canals & at Wytschaete & Hill 60.
But the sight was Ypres. Its ruined spires were gleaming in the sun & it was