Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 88

[Page 88]

up to 9 inch which are generally 3 mile or further back.

Chapter X Glisy and Brettoneux till July 4th.

Glisy was a nice little place near the Somme across the river is Lamotte Brebiere. We had a fairly good time here. Our section being in the one Bivvy, we used to buy milk and arrowroot and I and Willie soon had a nice mess in the dixies, which went down well. There were large numbers of American engineers here principally, from Illinois, and some french soldiers in their old skyblue uniforms. I often used to have a yarn to them, some of them. I could get along all right with them, especially if one had just a slight knowledge of English we got along alright. I used to write down on paper what I could not pronounce. One I was talking to was a buiscuit maker, and another a waiter, he knew quite a lot about Australia. I was talking to an Algerian when he said, "what country in Australia you come from. I was puzzled for a second, when he said, "Queensland". "Oh! no New South Wales", he looked puzzled and I, siezing it up quickly, said, "Nouveau Pays de Galles". Ah Oui! The Algerians are not very dark at all only like people who live in a hot climate, some Spanish are darker, But they grow practically no beard. I have often watched them gambling by means of cards with all having