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[Page 17]
men, women & children could be seen working in the fields & vineyards taking the place of the young & middle aged men who were in the army. At every every station numbers of young women & children would collect asking us for souvenirs & nearing Calais we came across groups of kiddies who cried out for bully beef & biscuits which were readily given by the troops. Whilst waiting in the railways yards the troops were issued with rations some being allowed to fill their water bottles & after about an hours wait the battalion set off on the march for billets. After we marched for some time the column was halted & told to sit down this rest lasting about an hour when we fill in & continued the march for another hour when we were again halted. When we resumed we proceeded a short distance to a farm where we were told to make ourselves comfortable in a barn for the night & it was not long before all were well asleep. On awakening next morning I found we had been sleeping in the same barn as a number of pigs but however after having breakfast the battalion was fallen in & my platoon was marched to the billet which had been found for us & the one it transpired we should have occupied the night previous. In this billet which consisted of two sheds of a farm, there was only room for our platoon (60 men) the remainder of the battalion was distributed throughout the surrounding district accommodated in small billets similar to the one we were in. When the troops were settled down in the billet leave was granted for the remainder of the day it then being 11AM. As soon as it was known than leave had been granted several of us formed a party to have a look round the district in which we were billeted. The country was most interesting the fields being green with new crops which was very pleasing to see after the deserts of Egypt. After walking for about half an hour we came to a small wayside inn (called an "Estaminet" where we had a good meal, the old Frenchman who owned the place becoming very friendly with us making us feel very much at home. When the meal had been disposed of we set out on the walk once more & after going some distance came to the town of Hazebrouck. This town proved very interesting for it had some very fine big buildings of which the "cathedral" is the largest & like all other European towns has its big market square in the centre of the town. At that time there was a fair population, but amusements were very scarce which we were told was due to the war. After having tea we left the town for our billet which proved to be a very long walk for in the excitement of our first day on leave in France we had travelled much farther than it appeared. It was 9PM when we arrived back at our billet & being very tired after the days outing it was not long before we were tucked into bed, so far felling satisfied with our experiences, & particularly with all we had seen during the trip, from the Suez Canal right through to the north of France, which had lasted Eleven days.