Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 85
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[Page 85]
to Godeswardveldt , where we entrained for Amiens. Apparently an idea that we must be kept in good form has stuck the authorities, for we were given a hot meal, from our own cookers before they were shipped & the train started. The journey was tedious; and we arrived at Amiens at night moving straight out to billets at Allonville. It was too dark to make any observation of the way; and we were all extremely tired: the march to Allonville itself was a long one. Our cooker had travelled ahead, and we had a hot meal waiting; after which sleep came quickly.
April 7
Our billets are in the barns of a filthy old farm-house, a place that is full of the stench of rotten straw & refuse. The whole place is old; in the centre of the yard which the building surround is a regular cesspit of decayed matter, covered with straw, into which one of our horse sank nearly to his body. The whole village of Allonville is a wretched one; with the exception of a couple of big houses the houses are huts of a sort of plaster over rough wood frames. The people are filthy & morose; in the centre of the village is a pond into which the drainage of the place seems to have run for centuries. Other villages in the neighbourhood seem to be much the same;