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[Page 4]
Trip to Nth France
Instead of running into Paris as we had hoped & expected we changed lines at a village siding of Juwiey thereby passing through the outskirts of the city seeing nothing but the Eiffel Tower & the Palace of Versailles. Here we received a great welcome from the people & from the numerous soldiers along the route. At one place our train drew up alongside the a French troop train. Enthusiasm knew no bounds on either side, our men if anything outrivalling the Frenchmen. At 4 PM on the 30th we passed through Amiens stopping at Abbeyville at 9. Another night in the train & we arrived at our destination of Ebblinhem at 4 AM on the 31st March. The morning was rainy & foggy & the boom of the Somme 20 kilometres to the north came plainly to our ears. Marching along a cobbly stone road past thatched country houses we arrived at the village of Renescure with it quaint old church. After breakfasting in the street we marched to our various billets. Eventually the MG Section were set up in a warm barn with several feet of straw on the floor. This was attached to the farm house with its usual stinking duck pond & manure heap its pigs dogs & cattle. In the village we found as a set off to our Egyptian experience that things were cheap – including beer & wine which can be purchased for 1d per glass. The place was already full of Tommies – men of the Royal Fusiliers who proved no a surprise to our men who had been in the habit of thinking the British soldier as the lowest form of humanity