It May Not Be Over By Christmas

Dunstable Street, Ampthill [Z1306/1/9/5]

(Dick Wheeler lived in Dunstable St both as a child and after his marriage)

Friday 20th November 1914:  Lance-Corporal Dick Wheeler of the 1st Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment has written again to his family in Ampthill describing conditions at the Front:

“It’s nothing but terrible. Wet, cold, and up to your neck in mud. Now we are getting a change, and that is snow. We have been in the trenches 22 days now. As we finished one big battle we were supposed to get a rest, but the Germans were pressing our lines so we had to march 14 miles and get into some more trenches, where our 2nd Battalion had been in for 22 days. They came out, and we went in. I saw a lot of my chums. We don’t know where we shall spend our Christmas. It may be over and it may not. … To look at us now you would hardly know us. We are afraid to walk 10 yards expecting a shell to burst into us every minute. When the rifle fire begins it’s terrible.”

Source:Ampthill and District News 12th December 1914