GAULLE Charles de. L. A. S., 15 November 1914, to his father Henri de Gaulle in Paris; 8 pages small in-8 in pencil on lined paper, envelope. Long letter written from the trenches. He was "still not a captain", because only officers "killed, missing or promoted to a higher rank are replaced. The wounded were not replaced [...]. When I returned to the 33rd, the colonel immediately made an offer for me, but it was returned to him because temporary appointments had just been suspended"... As for the military situation: "Here we never lose an inch of ground, but we often gain a little. But this is siege warfare. We are peacefully awaiting the decision in the north, where we are pushing back and counter-attacking the enemy with unflagging tenacity. Since 1st November, the Germans have set up a sort of new army", with recruits quickly trained to fill their ranks: "They therefore have a certain numerical superiority for the moment, which they are using with fury. But nowhere have they achieved the slightest result. Everything they were able to take from us (Yser crossing, Wailly, Dixmude) was immediately taken back from them. [...] to contain us they must spend against us what they intended for the Russians. Victory is not in any doubt, and if we are sometimes impatient, let us think of the certainty we have of the alliance of Time. However, we must not conceal the fact that Germany, even if invaded - and she is - will resist at home with the utmost energy. It has a very solid and resolute government, an extremely active command, large reserves of men (now much reduced, it is true), solid places and lines of defence prepared at length, but the solution is less than ever doubtful. The Russians needed at least three months to take action; during these three months, the Germans and Austrians had hoped to seize the entire line of the Vistula and wait there for the French to be crushed. None of this succeeded. [...] Our life here is fairly monotonous. We spend most of our days in the trenches which we arrange as best we can. The enemy very rarely attacks and when they do they don't insist because our wires, wolfholes, fences etc. stop them before we can even see them. For our part, we waged a war of undermining and from time to time occupied an enemy trench, but fifty metres behind there was another. From time to time, especially at night, or when we were relieved, there was appalling shooting from one trench to another, with no result of course. On both sides, the rest of the time, there were observers behind battlements who could see what went beyond the enemy's parapet, and here and there in the woods where we were, a good marksman climbed a tree at night and hid in the leaves, who, when daylight came, fired a few shots into the enemy's trench and quickly got down. In the front line there were very few shells, because the artillery was afraid of catching theirs at the same time. But in the second line and in reserve, a lot of cannon fire, which we parked as well as possible by going underground. Everyone is cheerful and ready for the offensive. I can assure you that we are not at all defeated. LNC, I, p. 109. An L. A. S. from Henri de Gaulle to his son Charles, Paris, 4 August 1914 (4 p. in-8), giving news of his other sons at the front.