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[Page 11]
Dec. 19th
We did not move out until the 13th, and then we had to get out at 5.30, with a long march to the Station, although I found that the line we passed several times was the one we travelled subsequently. It was snowing a bit, & the streets were slippery. The entraining business was a slow, messed up proceeding; but the French people sold us long thin loaves at a franc each (say 10d) When we got our car, a cattle truck to hold "6 horses or 36 men", we got a fire going with the aid of coal stolen from the engine & a biscuit tin; and we had a skirmish with the M.Ps who wanted the thing out. We kept the door closed, stifling with the smoke, for a long time. And after the M.Ps, with the aid of all the officers in the army – or what looked like it – had the fire out, we made provision for starting it again as soon as we started. It was bitterly cold & we needed it, although the smoke worried quite as much as the warmth pleased us.
All we got on the way up was "bully beef", "Maconochie" cheese, biscuits & dry tea which we had to make by getting water from the waste pipes of the engines when the train stopped. Still 30 men in a truck, with their blankets spread, keep one another warm. It didn't please us to see our officer empty chicken bones from a plate out of the window of the carriage where he was enjoying life. However, at Hazebruck, which we reached in the evening of the second day, on which it snowed heavily, we scored revenge, even if a vicarious one. We transferred to another train there; and as I was passing along the track by the cars, an