Brigadier General W M Withycombe (right), 107th Brigade, 36th (Ulster) Division, outside the former German town mayor’s house in Metz-en-Couture, 17 October 1917. IWM Q 7244.
Today has arrived an issue of one pair woolen gloves per man, and 50 extra for emergencies. Send along all mitts you have, they will come in useful for emergencies. Concentrate on socks, of which they never have enough. Cakes or bread, if at all feasible, they would love. Am trying to rig up some sort of place as a reading room, but it is so hard to get a place.
Bertie McCalmont has gone to take command of 1st Irish Guards. Withicombe, [sic] K.O.L.I., [sic] has got 107th Brigade.
The place is liquid mud ankle deep, and the country over your ankles. We shall do much damage to crops to-morrow, I fear, with our Field Day.
BLACKER'S LETTERS - WITH THE ‘NINTH’ IN FRANCE 