From the Cobram Courier: 17 May 1917

Harborne Hall, Birmingham Hospital, 21/3/17

Dear Sir,
I have just received a "Newsy Items" from you and judging by the date (18th December) it has taken a long time to reach its destination; in fact all my mail lately has been somewhat the same.
My parcels have also gone astray. The only one I did receive was from the Cobram Soldiers' Committee, and it reached me in January. I thank you very much for it.
It came in very handy while I was up in the trenches. I had the misfortune to dislocate my right shoulder, which accounts for me being in England. I am getting on well now, and will soon be fit to go back to the firing line.
We have had another severe winter, the worst for 30 years. I have never seen such frosts before and do not wish to go through another winter like it. It was freezing night and day for weeks, and then after it began to thaw there was mud up to your waist. Many a time we have often wished for those summer days that you people have been having lately.
I am convinced that there is no place like Sunny Australia and I will not be in a hurry to leave it. France and Belgium seem to me to be 100 years behind, both in farming and everything else.
They seem to knock along somehow, appear to be contented, and don't care who wins the war.
Flanders, where I have been for eight months, is simply ruined with continual bombardments. The country for miles is nothing but shell holes, and all the villages have been blown down.
Our company has been operating under Hill ----. It has been a very bad place to sap, as it is nothing but water.
We have great trouble in keeping the pumps going so as to keep the saps dry. We have to work and sleep in our wet clothes, as we have no chance of drying them until we get back to our billets, which means at least six days.
I think we are going to make a job of the Hun this year, as we have got him on the move.
Yours sincerely,
Sapper C.E. Gorey