Item 04: Walter Bruce Rainsford diary, 3 January 1917-31 December 1917 - Page 45

[Page 45]

off to the village of Ebblinghem (dept du Nord) twelve kiloms away. Immediately on arrival a small clearing hospital was established in some old farm buildings on the other side of the village and the Unit accommodated in various billets in the vicinity. We got some food during the afternoon and it was appreciated too after a "light supper" of bully beef & hard biscuits (Anzac wafers!) the night before and no breakfast nor dinner the following day. Soon after our arrival the rain started to come down pretty heavily and now on the third day here it is still raining. Everything is mud & slush and summer(?) too! Oh! Sunny France, where art thou? We are 9 kilms. From the town of Hazebrouck and in the evening of our arrival the Germans started to put shells into it, fired from long range, and kept it up right through the night. The Hospital in Hazebrouck immediately cleared out all their patients and we had to cease evacuating there. French civilians came streaming out along the roads and we gave up our blankets to 7 women & children who were accommodated in the little farm where my