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[Page 2]
Camouflaging in Picardy
These letters were written from France to my wife in England shortly after the dark days and up to the turning point of the war. Going from England to do camouflage work and paint pictures for War Records purposes, I arrived I arrived at the front 10 weeks after the Australians had stopped the Germans at Villers-Brettoneaux. The letters were kept buy my wife and they have simply been filed in date order, typed, and handed to the printer. On reading the typewritten copy I can see that I have left out many things that I know might have been of interest, but it is possible that their insertion might have impaired whatever freshness the letters, in their intended form, possess. I have called them "Camouflaging in Picardy" because the camouflage which my confieres of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Divisions and I, on the 5th were sent over to do, was used, in the end, only to disguise our painting activities. I am not aware of anyone else having recorded experiences in surroundings quite like mine, and this is my apologies for my hardihood in putting them forward. The whole period, environment and action interested me intensely and if, through these letters, a little of the atmosphere is conveyed to the reader, I will feel happy. I count myself lucky to have been on the scene on the wonderful 8th of August: the day that Ludendorff has called the "Day of Doom"