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oys get over here full force we’ll make him ache all over…and make him wish he had stayed<br />
in his own backyard and not started this trouble.” His Canadian battalion, he relates, “has a<br />
fine record of service in France…it has been in a lot of hard fighting and the boys have never<br />
failed to take and hold every objective we have been sent after so far.” 5<br />
Source: http://theywerethere.canalblog.com<br />
Canadians going into Valenciennes over an improvised bridge, 1 November 1918<br />
At the end of April, Grover received two letters. One revealed that another brother, Charles<br />
Despain, “a lieutenant in the American Army,” was stationed in England and was “working to<br />
secure [Joe’s] transfer [to the American Army]…[Charles had] completed arrangements with<br />
the Canadian headquarters at the end of March.” Charles went on to say, “the Captain of [Joe’s]<br />
Canadian company…has been trying to block the transfer…[Joe] is one of his best men and<br />
always the first over the top [of the trenches in offensives].” The second letter finds Joe<br />
expressing his frustration at sending letters home of little interest: “All we see is trenches, ruined<br />
villages, some hard fighting and part of the year it’s all mud, the rest is dust. All we have to do<br />
is to fight and rest.” 6 Longing to return home, he expressed his gratitude to the people of<br />
Pendleton for “writing letters and sending parcels. I believe I get more parcels and more letters<br />
than anyone else in the company.” 7<br />
108 THE CANADIAN ARMY JOURNAL VOLUME 16.2 2016
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