Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 97
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[Page 97]
would have saved the waste. The Red Cross people are generous enough, but the military heads are inclined to grudge giving the stuff. We had been going without in the Ravine because there was "no stuff available": but when O'Grady, the Battalion MO, said that he would not sanction the Battn doing a further period in the line, and only yielded on condition that the men were supplied with extra comforts, such as Tommy Cookers. Cocoa etc, the goods were promptly found. O'Grady was a fine M.O. but when he got a touch of gas, the heads got rid of him, & saw to it that he did not return. He was too good to the boys.
This Corporal, who is incensed with the Germans for robbing him of his nice job in Ballieul – he will have to go back to the line now – came loaded with sandbags loaded with bread, tinned food, chocolate etc which he had taken from the Red Cross dump before it was destroyed; yet he says that men have been caught taking the stuff, which was to be annihilated, & crimes entered against them!
From our heighth , we can see the blazes of burning towns, one of which is generally reckoned to be Ballieul.
Half way to Hondeghem there is an aerodrome, now deserted. The airmen have got further away from