Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 13]
good (?) "vang roudge", amer, or any other drink to be had there. It is now the sergeants' mess and as we haven't enough knives and forks and mugs to go round we have mungey (manger?) in two sittings. We get plenty to eat, but oh! it's coarse, white bread but only one mug of tea as water is scarce, or rather, difficult to get as it has to be drawn from a well 300 ft. deep and then taken by water-cart to where it is wanted. At the place where the officers feloniously deprived the diggers of the tennis-court, the country was almost flush with the small but famous river* and away from those levels the land mounts to the country where we now are. Down there, the poplar marches in file, escorting the winding small stream, and each successive terrace flanking it has its guard of these graceful sentinels. The effect is very satisfying yet suggestive and gives the country an elfin, fairy-like character, until a camp quietly declares itself and makes sad confession of the real state of affairs. Up here, except in one direction the visible expanse is vast, and flashes on the horizon show it where the artillery are working away. A little village nearby is being steadily demolished, not on account of any offence on its part but, because cross roads meet there. Yet men and civil and military vehicles continuously pass through it and a few precarious traffic controls live there. All day long, dusty officers and men come in for money, or on duty. They come from the line or near it and they come impartially by road or across country. Generally they haven't much to say. They may vouchsafe an informative remark to the effect that "We stoushed them up in that raid last night"; or, "Steve was done in yesterday. Anything you want me to take back to Lofty or Dark?" (a tall friend or a black-haired one). They are always grousing, ragging and joking. Frequently they lug out some piece of loot from a pocket "Jever see one'r them? I got that from a Jerry we copped last night. Give him a cigarette for her." They go as they come, except for being loaded down with chocolate, fags, condensed milk and other things for their "cobbers". No one ever goes for a walk without his gas mask, though here the chances are fairly slender of anything happening. To-morrow I go on the trail to try and find my equipment. It means starting early but that will be quite worth while if success attends the jaunt,
*Somme