Cocks letter diary, 1916-1919 / Verner Cocks - Page 568

[Page 568]

Gainaches, [possibly Hannaches]
France.
 €‹14/3/19.

Dear Dad,

Recd your letter of 31/12/18 some time ago also Law Almanac which I think will come in very useful.   You will be surprised to hear that Jack and I are on the first draught for home and have already taken the first steps.   Two days ago we left the Ambulance at Valines - 46 in all - and have joined the rest of the draughts from the other 9th Brigade units here.   This is about 7 miles from Valines.   We in a very fine camp the cleanest and best laid out I have seen.   Get right up on the side of a hill overlooking the town.   It was formerly a gas school.   We expect to leave here on the 17th inst and entrain for Le Havre where we will  be washed and cleaned - passing through a process requiring three different camps each one "cleaner" than the last until we finally reach an asceptic condition  and fit to cross to England. We will be deprived of all equipment except our tin hats which have been given to us as souvenirs  and given those white bags again for the voyage. Reg Hogan is orderly corporal at Le Havre so I will see him in Blighty we ought to get a boat & reach home in June.

Jack is a Sergeant on the Education Staff for the quota  and through him I might be able to get on it too, possibly as an instructor in law. For this purpose I am cabling you to send over some N.S.W. Statutes which I don't think will be obtainable in Blighty. I will look up Mr Reeves to see if he can put me on to any - also N.S.W. text books. I believe text books are very scarce both in England & Australia. Imagine me as a law lecturer. I think I will be required as a pianist more than as an instructor though.

Just before leaving Valines Jack & I got two days leave & paid a last visit to the old battle fields round Villers-Brettoneux.   This is what I wrote in my diary about the trip.

8/3/19
Caught 5 a.m. train to Abbeville & hopped a "goodser" to Amiens. Breakfasted off chips  and eggs  and proceeded along the road to Vill-Bret. hoping to hop a lorry but none came so we went back into Amiens  and spent the night at the Commerce Hotel. Amiens is going again - trains are running  and the place is very gay. A fair part of the town has been smashed. The cathedral has had two shells through it but not much damage done.   The inside  and outside are still sandbagged  and the statues inside are not replaced yet.

9/3/19
Caught 5 a.m. train to Corbie arrived at 5.30 a.m.  and slept on station till daylight. This is the town we passed through on the 29th March last year - Easter Friday night during a forced night march down to Villers-B. Well do I remember it - we rested exhausted in the square for five minutes  and munched a tin of cold bully beef.   At daylight we went into the ruined town  and were much surprised to find civvies already there in the few remaining houses and particularly a chips  and egg shop where we breakfasted. Madame there not at all satisfied with finding her house standing was bewailing the fact that all her crockery & linen was missing since the Germans had not been actually in occupation of the town.   I wonder what idea she has of war at all - of the fact of hundreds of lives lost to keep her house on its foundations. Corbie was a real hell of a place to be in during the war. Fritz used to drop 5-9's into it unceasingly day & night. We used to swim in a pool near bye  and  these things would  always be whistling over our heads into the town. Once or twice they dropped short  and splashed into the other end of our pool.   The Church is very much knocked about but an Aussie flag placed on the top of one of the towers when we arrived in this part of the country by some intrepid Digger still flutters all battered & torn.

Leaving the town by the same route as on that historical night of 29/3/18 we made our way to "Hayes Post".   Hayes' Post was the advanced dressing station for all this country  and well known to most diggers. Brigade H.Q.  and a Y.M.C.A. were there - a well sheltered spot in a chalk quarry where the cars ran up to  and to where we carried the wounded from many parts of the line. We were rather disappointed to find that it is fast losing its old familiar appearance. The hill is slipping away & the big underground dressing station is wet  and damp  and  eerie.   We hid our luggage inside & passed up the road towards the line to the famous spot "The five trees" where we used to have the first relay of

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