Item 01: Charles Monaghan diary, 1916 - Page 191
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[Page 191]
27 June 1916
Tuesday
Among 37 others I am packed in a truck waiting at Etaples station for the train to start on its way to the Front. Morning dull. Walk from camp hard going with pack up & two bags Y.M.C.A. motor at station with tea & biscuits Leave Etaples 5.30 a.m
<2 letters indecipherable/>longe Munition factories, Sea, Napoleons monument tall lighthouselooking structure nearest to England. St. Mor. ruined Cathedral. Hazelbrouk. Steenwaurk disentrian. Leave kitbags. Trek thro' town halt for refreshments. Then thro' peaceful country lanes. Crops growing luxuriantly, peas, beans, everything lovely. Sound of guns in firing line only indication of war. The pity of it.
Arrived Sailly, destination at 1p.m. 3 miles behind trenches. raining as usual, mud, quiet soldiers, coming & going to trenches. Gas helmets, universal. Sailly captured by
Germans in 1914. Cathedral ruined & burst, houses wrecked & fruits pitted with rifle fire. Put into barracks at 6 p.m. tea in shop. To bed thoroughly tired out.