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[Page 34]
expression which plainly says – "Who's the mug now?" They get 1/- per diem for their work to, whereas, as soldiers, they earn but one penny three farthings a day.
Well eventually we arrived at a place called Vignacourt. Its all bustle & mud here. The 1st Division Headquarters of A.I.F. is here too, at present, & the men are billeted round about. The train pulled up and we were disentrained at 12.30 am on 30th Nov., just 20 hours to come about 80 or 90 miles! The guns can plainly be heard here, at this back door of the Somme. At 4 pm we set off to Flesselles, a distance of 4 ½ miles, where our Battalion was supposed to be billeted. It was a dreary & hard march after the train ride, but at about 5.30 or 6 we reached it. The Battalion was not here, it had moved off a day before. We were crowded into a tumble down, rat infested, flee crawling, & icy cold old barn, and without blankets, turned in. We were hauled out at 3 am & marched back to Vignacourt. Here, in the dark we froze till day break.
There were many men here, the whole of the 2nd & 4th Battalions & some field Ambulances, all waiting to move off. When dawn broke, or, it sounds more like it to say when it "dawned" , for it just kind of comes gradually, a cold steel colour instead of inky black, we found the fields white with frost and ice. The ground was frozen hard as a brick, and all pools & horse-shoe grooves filled with ice. My feet were like ice blocks, the leather hard as a board, and legs numb to the knee. I had a wander round amongst the boys, and met a number I knew, including Clive Edmonds, who has been "in" three or four times in France, at Ypres, Armentierres, 2nd Posieres, and lower Somme, and is still going strong.
Here we remained till midday, setting off then for a place named Buere about 15 miles away. At 4 pm we got there, & marched to the Battalion Billets. We slept the night in tents. At 9 next morning 2nd Dec., I was put in D. Company, which was camped up near the line, about 6 miles away, doing road work & fatigues. We reached here, and were detailed to the rough huts the men are sleeping in. So, at last, I have joined my Battalion.