Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 61
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[Page 61]
Chapter VIII France
On the night of the 31st of March, we got our packs on and fell in to march to the railway station In our packs we carried nearly all our worldly possessions, and like most new hands carried far too much.
We got on the train at Dinton about 9 oclock and at 3 in the morning we had arrived at Dover. Dover is the closest port to France and is, as it looks a very old town. From Dover railway station we marched to the Barracks, where we had a slice of bread and bully for breakfast. Then we marched another 2 miles or so to the pier, and embarked for France. The sea was choppy, and I soon lost some tucker over the side. It is only a half hours run, and we landed at Calais, and marched about 4 miles out to a camp, and were berthed in tents 12 men or more in a tent.
The camp was a wretched place, nothing but sand everywhere, a regular egypt and it was very hard to keep the rifles clean. All sorts of troops were here and the camp was crowded with British and Dominion troops. For the Germans had started to drive the allies back, and had driven them back on Amiens