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[Page 74]
L'Armee Post
28/5/16
Fatigue commenced work at 3 am and shifts of 70 continued all day on new trenches near the Rue de Agretes. Inspected the billets at 10 am and found them rather dirty. Our men got to work on improvements in the way of sanitation &c. All the people hereabouts in their good clothes it being Sunday. No wonder frogs are an article of French diet, - the grass teems with them, both big ones and little.
29/5/16
At 2 am our batteries started bombarding enemy firing line and communication trenches. At about 11.45 the Germans put over some shells which landed about 500ft away from here. A lovely day, a Taube over fairly early and then ours came over much shelling at them.
Round the billets and over the work with the C.O. Some shells round during the afternoon but otherwise very quiet. Shifts for the fatigues all altered and we now moving 100 men at 1.30 am and they work until 8. Just about dusk the guns had a rally but it died down.
The work we engaged on is being reproduced from an aeroplane map and is a replica of a portion of the enemy lines it is proposed to raid. The men will be practising over this particular bit until they are familiar with its layout.
Time hangs fairly heavy on the men's hands and "two-up" & cards occupy a good deal of their time. If they get careless and play openly the M.P.'s have to step in. After tea went over to the trench again which is now being very vigorously pushed on with. A big party of the 23rd are also on this job. Six men are said to have been casualties as the result of this afternoons shelling.
Returned to billets and sat down in the shop and talked French to the mademoiselle & the demoiselle there. A good looking wench is mademoiselle of some 21 years and she says she has never been kissed. I have a shrewd idea she has been that & worse. Unfortunately she is "cockeyed" and so is one of her small sisters too.
A good way to pick up French is talking to these girls. The elder went to school in Armentieres and finished off at a college in Lille. Her brother is at school at Hazebrouck and her father is there too. She is a "Catholique" & repeats the ruling phrase that in France there are many with no religion many Catholique but "beaucoup les mavais catholique.