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[Page 41]
to imagine the grand cathedrals with all their impressive beauty or the quaint little shops and cottages which once stood in the place of those ruins, or the gay throng, the patter of whose feet those very cobble stones, now scarred and torn by hugh shell holes, once sent back their cheerful echo. Looking from such a height one can see the full effect of the desolation and havoc, and no-where is there a house that is not ruined beyond repair and nowhere is there any spot where this desolation is relieved except where nature has tried ineffecturally to weave a kindly web of green over the heaps of blown down bricks twisted iron and ruined timber as if to cover up a nasty wound. How is it you wonder that such an ugly scene so characteristic of German Culture should have such a beautiful setting.
October 21st. Left about 9 p.m. with the right section for the waggon lines, as we are leaving this position and going as rumours say to the Somme again.
October 22nd. Right section left Poperinghe at 9 a.m. and arrived at our camping place near Cassel about 2.30 p.m. No leave granted.
October 23rd. Left section joined us to-day and general leave granted to Cassel so Laurie and I went in. The town is on a steep high hill and owing to hostile aircraft is kept in utter darkness, so we had to grope our way along dark streets opening every door we came to in order to ascertain what sort of a shop it was. After opening what seemed to us an innumerable number of doors we at last struck a good little restaurant and had a good meal.
October 24th. They suddenly woke us up at 3 a.m. this morning and told us the Battery would move off at 6 a.m. which it did. From that hour we were riding all day, with only a short halt to feed the horses, but unluckily not ourselves, arriving at Clerques about 5 p.m. where we were billeted in a big deserted pretty chateau. As it was raining all the way we had a pretty rotten day of it.
From Clerques we marched to St. Omar and entrained late at night.arriving
At Saileaux about 2 p.m. the next day, the train being about 9 hours late. When we again got on the road we trekked as far as Bussy halted there for the night and then went on to