Newspaper

Interesting letter from Lieutenant Cyril Jacobs

A letter was received this morning by Dr Maurice Jacobs, 30, Albion-Street, from his brother Lieut. Cyril Jacobs, R.A.M.C (who assisted Dr Jacobs in his practice here last year). Lieut. Cyril Jacobs has been with the Expeditionary Force since October. The writer states:-

“8th Field Ambulance, British Expeditionary Force, April 30th 1915,
“I have been attached to the above for about ten days, and our headquarters are in Belgium in sight of Ypres, and a little over two miles behind the trenches. We do the work of the whole division, which consists of collecting the wounded and sick from the various regimental aid-posts in the division, attending to their present needs, and dispatching them to the casualty clearing station at railhead (who in their turn send them down to the base or to England). Our gear consists of two small rough and ready hospitals, seven motor ambulances, some horse ambulances, horses, etc. We do our collecting at night, as during the day the ambulances or even stretcher bearers would be almost certain to draw fire. I have been the round four times, and am getting used to it. The party consists of the officer in charge, 24 stretcher bearers, one N.C.O., and we take usually six motor ambulances. The regimental dressing stations are in any sort of building about 600 or 700 yards behind the trenches. I was conducting the party last night, and had rather a nerve time, as the “bosches” were particularly active in shelling the roads. At one particularly hot corner they were putting a shell every five minutes, so I thought it would be best to wait under cover of a building until they had sent their souvenir across, and then make a dash for it. But having waited 15 minutes without anything happening, thought it was time to be making a move, and it was lucky we hadn’t moved off sooner, because when about 100 yards from the critical spot they landed their souvenir, which, judging by the noise it made, was an extra big one. A quarter of a mile further on, while the [—] were standing, and I was looking for a certain dressing station, a shrapnel shell burst almost directly overhead. Luckily, it burst high – about 35 yards or so – and although pieces fell only a few feet away from me, none of the party was hit.

We have a pretty big mess – nine R.A.M.C. officers, two Army Chaplains, a Belgian interpreter, and an officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who is an expert bomb-thrower, and goes up to the trenches every night with his trench mortar, and probably does a good deal of damage. During the day he teaches grenade and bomb-throwing. I have a very comfortable billet, and share a room with the interpreter of the F.A. [Field Ambulance] He is a young Belgian from Antwerp, and we go out riding frequently. I have a decent horse, and am becoming a decent rider. We rode to Poperinge the other day.

Today we had a short walk to a hill from the top of which there is a fine view of the country. Ypres was in flame at one point, and you could trace pretty accurately the line of trenches for 15 minutes or so by the puffs of smoke given off by bursting shrapnel. We saw what we took to be the explosion of mines – two huge brown clouds about 80 or 100 yards high, which remained for the best part of a minute. They may, however, have been extra large shells bursting. Lowther, the speaker’s son, came through the field ambulance yesterday. He was hit in the head and was very bad. Things appear to be getting on pretty well in these parts, and a good part of the ground lost by the French when the Germans used their guns has been reclaimed. By the way, you will be pleased to hear that the general feeling out here is that the war will be over November-December next.”

Date: 8-May-1915

Author: Hull Daily Mail

Where to find this: British Newspaper Archive

Contributed by Fiona Johnson - Durham