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[Page 3]
Coisy
14/6/1918
I am at my destination and it has taken me a week to get here. S. and I had a quick journey to Folkstone, arriving there at about 9.20 a.m. There we were informed by the embarkation officer that the boat to Boulogne would not leave till 4f30 p.m. He told us where we could leave our equipment, gave us each a pass and said we were at liberty to do as we liked until the boat sailed. An Australian sergeant who looks after embarkation matters there then took us in hand, and after showing us where the Hun had not long ago bombed the town and killed a few children, women and old men and blown a house or two to pieces, left us with some tips as to what there was to see, where to go to eat, how to get on and off the boat and how to act when we got on the other side. We made a tour of the pretty little town, bought and sent off some post-cards and then went to listen to the band. The parade on the top of the cliff was full of wounded men and officers and women, and looked quite gay. In the distance looking towards France, we could see balloons, apparently tethered to floats and round about them and along the coast was a ceaseless patrol of seaplanes, which sometimes landed on the sea, only to rise again shortly in a sort of wild-duck flutter and resume the rounds. A great number of Americans were in the town - a fine looking lot of men and very well behaved. An endless number of them, it seemed, were all the time marching in column of route through the streets, in from or out to their camp and a host of them were sauntering through the town, up and down its quaint, hilly, twisty little streets. They were buying things. "Chahclate" and cigarettes were their chief purchases, but, on going into a shop to get a nail clip, I was told by the comely lady who owned it that there were none to be had in the town: "those American soldiers have bought them all." Their bearing was remarkably good. There were a lot of them in these small streets; thousands: yet, they got in no one's way and there wasn't a word from them that anyone could have taken exception