Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 10]
hon. Lieut, and painting pictures for the Commonwealth (and free from military tyranny) showed me some very interesting sketches, and K---- and I had a long yarn in which we gave each other news of different men of the old 2nd brigade, I slept with the pay clerks on the floor of a small room in the ramshackle chateau, and sleeping lightly, heard during the night, at waking intervals, the rush overhead, towards the city where Purvis' "War" and "Peace" decorate the Hotel de Ville*, of monster shells. The night before, at twilight, I watched a ridge where recently our boys did some fine work**. The air was wonderfully clear and only on the horizon was there any smokiness, and against this opaque grey field I could see, like fireflies, or electric sparks, the flash of our artillery. It looked so small and the sparking was so sporadic that it was hard to think of it as part of a battle. This day I've seen some good flying and even now at 7 o'clock they are performing. Just now a boche, flying very high and probably coming over to try and observe, got a very hot reception from our archies. He turned tail and beat it for all he was worth with shrapnel bursting all round him. But - give him his due - he was game. They all are.
I am fairly well but suffer much from the disabilities of N. C. rank.
ST. GRATIEN, 16/6/18.
After writing to you yesterday I had to go before a staff officer to get orders and though he was quite nice I felt how hopeless it was to expect him to understand my situation. As a soldier I don't mind getting soldier's treatment, but having been sent as an artist it's hard to get ordered round as a soldier and I tacitly resent it. But, as this is the only way I may rebel, the inhibition has had a depressing reaction. Last night I was round at F's. tent, where I have a standing invitation. There I am permitted to meet on a footing of dubious equality, officers to whom during the day I am bound to show every kind of humbling, ceremonious respect. At the end of 3 months' probation ("if satisfactory" - according to the schoolmaster - tho' what he knows of art I can't say) I shall be one of them but with no hope of forgetting my former
*Amiens
**Villers Brettoneaux