Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 11]
Amiens
11/7/16
transports. The battalion could easily have been detrained at the billets in 15 minutes and the transports gone on alone to the further place. But no: the glorious British Army takes the men 12 miles past their billets lets them get out & then marches them 12 miles back over cobblestones. Things like this make one sick. I wouldn't mind being Fritz would not be fool enough to do a similar thing.
We set off and marched right through Amiens which is a fine old large city with wide streets. It seems fairly scattered. We went via subsidiary streets & created quite a sensation even in a place where the tramp of armed men has been heard daily for two years past now. The people were much taken with our hats. The spire of the cathedral is a striking thin sharp one and has a beautiful airy effect. The men marched very well through the streets the people all seemed very prosperous and neat. Plenty of French motor transport about, the blue uniformed drivers appear very smart and brisk. We pushed on right through the town & pulled up for tea near a big cemetery a delightful spot full of lovely green trees. A number of women came round up to all the tricks of Egypt exposing themselves & proposing to g— the soldiers.
Leaving the town we passed through a number of villages and past cornfields covered with poppies & blue cornflowers. Turned off at St. Savieurs & thence to Brilay where we billeted the men in a ruined Chateau in the cellers. Wire bunks had been fitted in – a most extraordinary place. Lovely avenues of trees approaching the place. Officers billet in a farmhouse with an old virago of a farm wife we had to argue furiously with. We have had a hell of a day today been on duty continuously for 21 hours marched 21 miles & been 8 hours in the train. All finished up cheerful.