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[Page 37]
were staggering, & could scarcely crawl along, would straighten them up the instant it was struck up, & that piece was the "Marseillese" it has a fiery, joyous, swing to it & I don't wonder at the French being such demons to fight when inspired by this piece of music.
As soon as we reached the camp we would have a good square meal waiting for us, & after that was over would come the, washing, bathing, shower's & etc. & a change into dry & clean clothes, at 7.30 there would be night operations that would last till 10 or 11 oclock at times, we often worked & drilled 16 hours of the 24. this is no lie I can assure, it was only too true, how it culled the weak ones
out, many a big strong looking man cracked up like a piece of dry wood. After a month of this sort of work, our day drill was shortened, for we were as near perfection as they could get us with the rifle, & our night work was extended, till toward the last we done all our drill at night time, such as taking up positions, digging trenches, attacking, scouting, silent marches, bayonet attacks, rapid movements & all the finer points of the game, the only work we done in the day was at the ranges & that was more of a pleasure than anything else, we used to have competitive firing between the company's, & platoons, & I am proud to say that my platoon No 11, won the % every time with the exception of twice, ours was a splendid platoon