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[Page 70]
of destroyed houses and bricks These places were unrecognisable. I remember when we made our hurried departure from Outerstein as we travelled rapidly through the village streets I saw the civilian people women and children standing at the doors of their houses ( looking) anxious and dispirited looking, but little did I think at that time that when I returned back to this village a few months afterwards that I would not be able to recognise the place and that there would not be a civilian left in the place. It is tragic when one thinks of all the misery caused by this War.
From Streezele we walked over the devastated country to the village of Fletre which was also unoccupied and badly knocked about.
We were fortunate in getting a lift back in a Motor Lorry. During the afternoon we could see Bailleul away in the distance nothing else but a mass of ruins, at one time a busy centre of the troops now all but levelled to the ground.
Saw a few people who had had to leave their home, now returning. What a return. One little French girl as she looked despondingly at her wrecked home. her face lighted up as she remembered the "Bon times" that she had when