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[Page 68]
Our stay at Dernacourt lasted a couple of days & during that time the boys had very little to do except rest themselves. During the morning of the 21st of March the battalion set off on the march once more this time going back to Ribemont where we told we were to remain for a few days on training for the front line again. On the 25th our battalion played the Brigade Trench Mortar Battery football resulting in a win for us by 13 points to nil but at the same time providing a good afternoons enjoyment for all. During the stay here plenty of parade ground drill with occasional long route marches were indulged in which soon had the troops properly fit once more. After ten days training we had to pack up & moved back towards the front line that day marching about twelve miles to Montauban where we were put into huts for the night. The next morning saw the battalion on the move again this march proving to be one of the hardest ever experienced by the battalion. Throughout the whole way a blizzard raged & half the journey was along a duck board track where the snow that had fallen was frozen to the boards making the walking extremely hard & slippery. The marched finished at Fremicourt after fifteen miles of the best & was not long before we had a big fire going in an old billet to dry our clothes & also to get warm. I had to do the whole of the above march with one boot off owing to a septic heel for the Doctor would not send me to hospital but I stuck the march out, arriving at the destination with the boys, not being sorry when it was over. before turning in that night a good meal was issue after which the boys sat talking around the fire for a while then turned in for a well earned rest. next morning having nothing to do I took a stroll round the villages to view the damage which the huns had done before evacuating & it was cruel to see for even the old church was simply one big heap of stones & there was not a house left standing intact.