Item 01: Clifford M. Geddes diary, 31 March-1 August 1918 - Page 27
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 27]
the same old thing again, shoved into billets, 80 were put in a big shed. I struck a sort of room with a board floor for a change, 24 of us. I'd much rather a hayshed & straw. The fellows boiled some water in their mess tins, made tea, we got out our bully & bread & had dinner, 3 p.m. Boots & puttees all mud, wonder when a chap will have the pleasure of polishing his boots among pleasant surroundings away from war's proximity again! Wrote up my diary after eating, then took a walk up town, & got a shock when I saw trenches dug through the town & up the hill. It looks as if they expect the Hun to drive us back further still, & are getting trenches ready to fall back on. I went into a cemetry & had a look at French graves, some were very fine stones & vaults. Came back to the billet, & talk about rough! some of our chaps had pinched a fowl, potatoes, carrots, & had the "chook" on boiling. An old woman spotted another cove taking sheaves from the loft to put on the board floor, & said "No bon" & took it from him, but she would have said more than "No Bon" if she knew her fowls had been reduced