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[Page 163]
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enough reason to let the Boche have a good look at the boys who stepped into the Amiens breech & at least two others, in March and April '18. However our Army Corps Commander fought hard for the A.I.F's obvious right to representation in the Army of Occupation and the matter is over and done with.
The Civilians were just drifting, the word is very suitable, back to Fresnoy when we were there; the people who had stayed while the Boche occupied the place were easily distinguished by their drawn, nervous looks and thinness.
You would have been amused one day could you have seen me helping two very old ladies transport their worldly goods from the railway station to the house. I found them struggling with a huge badly balanced barrow with all their belongings on it. Having ventured "Vieulliez vous me permettez, Madame" and Madame had resigned her place at the wheelbarrow in my favour with a flourish and much ceremony, also many "Je vous remercies Monsieur, Ah! les très gentil Australiennes", we formed a procession up and down streets and round corners with French people beaming and nodding over le bon Australien and an occasional "Aussie" yelling out "good on your Digger, that's the stuff to give 'em". Their gratitude was intense for so small a service and we parted the best of friends.
In this town we were all immensely tickled by the huge Hun war loan posters which were very fanciful, one in particular showing England surrounded by submarines, with a distracted John Bull tearing his hair in the centre of the Map.