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[Page 13]
conditions we soon became weak and exhausted, and noticed each other getting quieter and more melancholy as time went on. The big men and the young ones seemed to go down first. The small wiry men held out best of all.
We were given a post card each to enable us to write to our people and let them know we were still in the land of the living and as "Stiffy" advised us, we wrote in one corner "Please send Parcels". We learnt we would be allowed to write four cards and two letters per month, but of course without money we could not buy these things. "Fritz" issued us one and only one, and had it not been for a good "Samaritan" in my Barracks named Moody of the 31st Batt., who had managed to stick to some money and had bought letters and post cards, and shared them amongst us each week, we should not have been able to write until we should have earned some money ourselves.
Those of us who were able to procure writing material addressed our next cards to the "British Red Cross" being advised to do so by some of the "Tommies" who had been "through the Mill", but they only got as far as the Censor, who stopped them going, and returned them to us three weeks later to impress on us the fact that it was forbidden to write directly for assistance.
CHAPTER IV
"Various Experiences with the Huns"
As time passed we became gradually worse off, and pawned our boots braces rings and watches to Frenchmen for some of their biscuits, many of the boys parting in this way with some of their most valued possessions, for perhaps 12 or 20 biscuits – biscuits that in Egypt we had so scorned, - and in many cases wasted. Other men who could not do without smoking would obtain tobacco for their trinkets, and make cigarettes from paper of any description, pocket testaments being in great demand for cigarette papers.
Twice a week for tea we were issued a salt herring. Most us ate it just as it was, but others collected paper and made a small fire and tried to cook it, but by this time we had lost any "faddishness'" we may have had, and were only too glad to eat, - eat anything. Once a week we got some concoction they called "cheese", but it looked like curdled milk and caraway seeds. Of this we might, if lucky, get a tablespoonful, and if one was quick enough in going round to the French Barracks, he would occasionally get their issue as well. One day we were formed up and told we were all to be inoculated and vaccinated. Well, this news filled us with great misgivings, and some thought it better to try and dodge it, as no one knew what kid of vaccine they might use, but it ended in some dodging all five inoculations, and others having one, two, three or four. Whatever it was they used, it did not tend to make us more cheerful or strong physically.