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[Page 20]
there we found him to be one of the 1st Feild engineers lost and he was a lucky man to get in save. On the 12/9/16 we was releived by the 9th Btn and then we went back to Devonshire camp were we arrived at 4 a.m on the 13/9/16. On the 14/9/16 six of us was detailed off for gaurd at the Royal Engineers Camp they could not do it themselves. And on the 21/9/16 we were inspected by General Sir Herbert Plumer who was in charge of the 2nd Army Corp which we were attached to and he gave us a lot of kid stakes in saying that we were the best lot of men he had seen for a very long time. On the 22/9/16 we had a days sport when Major Woodford bought 4 barrells of beer for the Btn. He was temporarily in charge of the Btn. Colonel Heane had been sent in command of the 1st Brigade. I with others was sent to the Veterinary Corp on the 23/9/16 to build stables. We we there till the 5/10/16 when the Officer showed the Cpl in charge of us a letter from the Division Head Quarters saying 12 men and N.C.O. was to report from you to the 1st Btn on the 25/9/16 they are posted missing please report to H.Q. at once. So we had to leave that good home and go back to the Btn. We got to them about 9 P.M. on the 5/10/16 the Btn went into the Epreys [Ypres] Sector at a point called the Bluff the Btn went in on the 25/9/16 and came out on the 7/10/16. C Coy had 9 casualtys. We went to the support trenchs from the line and we stayed there doing fatigue work untill the 12/10/16 when we went back to Devonshire Camp where we stayed till the 14/10/16 when we started to march to St.Omer in France. We marched to Steenvoorde where we arrived about 1 or 1.30. The distance was about 9 miles. We stayed there that night in a large farm house.
On the 15/10/16 we left Steenvoorde and we passed Cassel on the left which looked to be a very nice town. It is built on a very high hill. And we passed through some very pretty and fertile country. We stayed at a farm house for the night I dont know what part of the country we were in here there was about 5 houses together. We done about 14 miles that day. On the 16/10/16 we started off again and when we got about 5 miles on the road. We was halted and we found that we had to change our direction we passed through 3 small villages then we came to a sort of precipice and we stopped for a spell and a lot of us went and looked over down at the valley below. It was about 3 or 400 feet below and we forgot all about the war and the places that we had left for it looked so pretty the river and railway winding in and out the little farms and the houses with there red tiled roofs. And it was a splendid sight after seeing the ruins of Eprey [Ypres] Albert and other ruined towns. And they named it right when they call it fair land of France and if we could stop in that part we would be satisfied to stop in France for ever. We done about 15 miles that day and stopped at a village the name I dont know. It was 13 Killos from St.Omer and 34 from Calias and about a mile in off the main road. So we stayed there training till the 20/10/16 when we marched to St. Omer where we entrained and we passed through Calais, Boulonge [Boulogne] and we got out at a place called Longfree and we left the train about 4.30 am on the 21/10/16 then we marched off again along roads and through paddocks and every village sighted we thought it was our new home and so on like this till 8.30 when was saw a small village in a hollow. And as