German pencil sketch of a devastated Church in Fresnoy, likely Fresnoy-le-Grand, dated, February 6, 1915 by K. Marx (?), addressed to Paul Marx.
K. Marx (?) Fresnoy 6.II.15Reverse:Addressed to Paul Marx
"February 6th. — Yesterday quiet, lovely this morning. The enemy used his minenwerfer against the Scottish H.Q. At night the German searchlight caused a lot of annoyance. It had been seen first from the Houplines front when experiments with it were being made, and it seemed to be behind Wez Macquart. It was most disturbing to parties working on the wire, or on the new breastwork, or to reliefs going in over the top. If it was turned on to a patrol in Nomansland it did not really show up anyone who lay flat and still, but it made one feel rather naked and exposed, like the common dream of walking down Bond Street without any trousers. The men called it Willy's Eye."
Entry for February 6, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. The minenwerfer was a German short-range mortar. Houplines, France lies on the River Lys and the Franco-Belgian border immediately east of Armentières. Wez Macquart is about six miles to the south.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 115, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1915, February, 1915-02-06, Houplines, searchlight, minenwerfer
