Rare soldier’s letters about trench horrors

HARROWING First World War letters revealing how 160 British soldiers were shot trying to dig a trench yards from the German lines have come to light.

A survivor, Sapper Thomas Winter, wrote to his sister Mary of the horror during the Battle of Ypres in 1915.

He also told of one enemy soldier with his wife and children still in

Birmingham asking across no-man’s land who had won the FA Cup final.

Sapper Winter, 21, was killed in 1917 and his letters are expected to fetch £5,000 at auction in Devizes, Wilts.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said letters home were often censored but “these are interesting because they go into detail about the horrors of war”.