menu_book Chapter 7

CHAPTER VII 7. On Number B***h, Ambulance Train 5. Winter on the train and in the trenches. January 7, 1915 to February 6, 1915. The winter and the dark last long Grief grows and dawn delays Make we our sodom doubly strong

And lift on high our gaze And staunch we deep the hearts that weep And touch our lips with praise Anon 7. On number *** ambulance train 5

Winter on the train and in the trenches January 7, 1915 to February 6, 1915 The petite vetece siding Uncomplainingness of Tommy Painting the train

A painful convoy The U-Lands watch Officer dressed in bandages Sautéville Versailles

The Palais Trianon A walk at Rouen The German view and the English view Punch When you return conqueror

K's new army. Thursday, January 7th. We moved out of Bologna about 4am and reached Myrville with many long waits. At 2pm loaded up there and filled up at Hezebruock on way back. Many cases of influenza with high temperatures, also rheumatisms and bad feet. Very few wounded. when they got the kaki hankies they said kaki that's extra nine thirty p m we have three hundred and eighteen on board this time including four enterics four diphtherias and eighteen convalescent scarlet who caught it from their billet a quiet-looking man has a very fine new german officer's helmet and sword he gave it to me he said i had shot him through the lung i did the wound up as best i could and tried to save him but he died

he was coming for me with his sword seems funny to first shoot a man and then try to mop it up the germans don't they finish you off an officer on the train told me how another officer and twenty-five men were told off to go and take a new trench which had been dug in the night instead of the few they expected they found it packed with germans all asleep it's not a pretty story he said but you can't go first and tell them you're coming when you are outnumbered three to one they had to bayonet every one of those sleeping germans and killed every one without losing a man all of my half of the train had khaki hankies and sweets they simply loved them they are all except the infectious cases just out of the trenches and such things make them absurdly happy you would hardly believe it i am keeping the writing cases and bullseyes for the next lot there were just enough mufflers to muffle the chilly necks of those who hadn't already got them the wet has outwetted itself all day it must be a record flood everywhere we shall not unload to-night so i had better think about turning in as i have the third watch at four a m i found some lovely eau de cologne and shampoo powders from r among the mufflers and a pet aluminium candlestick from g such things give a sister on an a t absurd pleasure you would hardly believe it

Friday, January 8th. Still pouring. We unloaded at 9am. Got our mail in. My wardmaster was so drunk tonight that the QMS had to send to the OC, and he had just got his corporal stripe. He was a particular ally of mine and was in South Africa. We are in that foulest of all homes for lost trains today. The petite Vitesse siding out of B station, with the filth of all the ages around, about, and below us. You have to shut your windows to keep out the smell of burning garbage and other horrors. It is nearly three months since I sat in a chair, except at meals.

and that is only a flap down seat or saw a fire except the pails of coke the tommies have on the lines. I expect we shall be off again tonight somewhere. Saturday January 9th. Did you see the HAC's story of the frozen Tommy who asked them to warm his hands and then seeing they were on their way to his trench hastily explained that he was all right, only a bit numb.

one thing one notices about them is that they have an enormous tolerance for each other and never seem to want to quarrel they take infinite pains in the night not to wake each other in moving over the heaps of legs and arms broad everywhere and will keep in cramped positions for hours rather than risk touching someone else's painful feet or hand if you want to improve matters they say I shall be all right sister it might jog his foot they never let you miss anyone out in giving things around

and always call your attention to anyone they think needs it but not to themselves it is very funny how they won't fuss about themselves and in consequence you often find things out too late last June a man with asthma and bronchitis was

unfortunately as it turned out given a top bunk as he was considered too bad to be a sitting up case At 6am I found him looking very tired and miserable sitting on the edge. I can't lie down, he said, with this cough.

When I put him up in a sitting-up corner below, he said, I could have slept all night like this. It never occurred to him to ask to be changed. They get so used to discomfort that they stay put and never utter. We had missed his distress in the 318 we had on board,

and they were sleeping on the floors of the corridor, so the middle bunks were very difficult to get at. any of them would have changed with him this happens several times on every journey but you can't get them to fuss the germans and the sikhs begin to clamour for something directly they are on the train and keep it up till they go off another typical instance though not a pretty one of tommy's reluctance to complain occurred on the last journey i came on one compartment full busily engaged in collecting j j s off one man in the middle with a candle to see by his blanket i found was swarming and it was al's not his one of a lot taken on at rouen as disinfected for one ghastly moment i thought it might be the compartment where i'd spent a good half-hour doing up their feet but it wasn't

i had the blanket hurled out of the window and they then slept but they weren't going to complain about it there was one jovial old boy of sixty with rows of ribbons he had three sons in the army and when they went he wasn't going to be left behind so he reenlisted Sunday, January 10th. Woke up at Baiel. Sun shining for once, and everything. Floods and all. Looking lovely all the way down. Loaded up early and got down to B by 4pm to hear that we are to go on to Rouen. Another all-night touch. We have put off 14 of the worst cases at B, and are now on our way to R. this is the first time we have shipped to canadians p p c l i the only regiment as yet in the fighting line they are oldish men who have nearly all seen service before many in south africa lots more wounded this time some s l i got badly caught in a wood they've just come from india when i took the devonshire toffee around a little doubtful whether the h a c's would not be too grand for it one of them started up oh by george not really we have a boy on board with no wound and no disease but quite mad poor boy he has to have a special orderly on him

monday morning january eleventh rouen the approach to rouen at six o'clock on a pitch dark wet and starlit morning with the lights twinkling on the hills and on the river and in the old wet streets is a beautiful sight my mad boy has been very quiet all night tuesday january twelfth at airsore day by some mistake it hasn't rained all day so we took the opportunity to get on with painting the train we worked all the morning and afternoon and got a lot done and it looks very smart huge red crosses on white squares in the middle of each coach and the number of the warden figures a foot long at each end this on both sides of the coaches we have done not quite half the coaches and are praying that it won't rain before it dries if it does the result is pitiful the orderlies have been shining up the brass rails and paraffining the outside of the train and have also played and won a football match against number one a t wednesday january thirteenth woke up at abbeville on the way to bologna where i hope we shall have time to get males five p m we went through bologna without stopping and got no males in consequence nor could we pick up p who has been on ninety-six hours leave

we have been on the move practically without stopping since eleven p m last night and are just getting to bethune the place where we went two days after christmas where we were quite near the guns and went over the c l h which had been shelled expect to take wounded up here the country is wetter than ever it looks one vast swamp of course the rain has spoiled our lovely paint thursday january fourteenth we picked up a load in the dark and wet with some very badly wounded who kept us busy from six p m to four a m without stopping Some were caked with mud exactly to their necks. One told me he got hit trying to drag out three of his section who were half buried by an unexploded coal box. When he got hit they were left and eventually got finished by our own guns.

Another lot of eleven were buried likewise and are there still but were all cooled instantaneously. one man with part of his stomach blown away and his right thigh smashed was trying to get a corporal of his regiment in but the corporal died when he got there and he got it as well he was smiling and thanking all night and saying how comfortable he was another we had to put off at saint omer on the off chance of saving his life he was made happy by two tangerine oranges many of the sitting-ups have no voice and they cough all night we unloaded this morning got asleep this afternoon and are now five p m on our way up again the clearing hospitals are overflowing as of old and like the field ambulances have more than they can cope with we have to redress the septic things with h two o two which keeps them going till they can be specially treated at the base some of the enterics are very bad train journeys are not ideal treatment for enteric hemorrhage but it has to be done

two of my orderlies are very good with them and take great care of their mouths and know how to feed them it is a great anxiety when a great hulking gdo general duty orderly not a nursing orderly has to take his turn on night duty with the badly wounded it is time the sun shone somewhere but it surely will later on friday january fifteenth we got to beaille too late last night for loading and went thankfully to bed instead now three thirty p m nearly back at b but expect to be sent on to rouen most sick this time and bad feet not exactly frost-bite but swollen and discoloured from the wet one of my enterics is a field ambulance boy with a temp of a hundred and five and he only went sick yesterday how awful he must have felt on duty he says his body feels four sizes too big for him it is a mild day sunny in parts and not wet still friday january fifteenth we unloaded at six p m at b and are to set off again at four fifteen a m business is brisk just now this last lot only had mostly minor ailments besides the enterics and the wounded

the french major has had a letter from his wife at last they are with the germans but quite well we drank their health to-night in special port and champagne and had christmas pudding with sauce d'infair as the lighted brandy was called but we are all going to bed not yvrez i'm glad to tell you this going up by night and down by day is much the less tiring way as we can undress and have a real night in bed later he said brioc we have been out but couldn't get as far as number clh where i find tears as the rt o said we might be going on at eleven thirty We came across an anti-aircraft gun pointing to the sky on a little hill. The gunner officer in charge of it seemed very pleased to see us, as he is alone all day.

He walks up and down the road a certain distance, dropping stones out of his pocket at each turning, and clears out the surrounding drainpipes to drain his bit of swamp as his amusements. He showed us his two kinds of 12-pound shells, high explosives and shrapnel. the high explosive frightens the enemy airplane away by its terrific bang he says our own airmen say they don't mind the shrapnel he says you can't distinguish between one kind of french airplane and the germans until they are close enough over you to see the colors underneath and then it may be too late to fire

I'm terrified of bringing down a French aeroplane, he said. He was a most cheerful, ruddy, fit-looking boy. 9pm. Another train fall and nearing Bologna. A supply train full of minor cases came down before us from the same place where we've been three days running. The two clearing hospitals up there are working at awful high pressure,

filling in from field ambulances and emptying into the trains. All cases now have to go through the clearing hospitals for classification and diagnosis and dressings. But it is of a sketchy character, as you may imagine. They are all swarming with JJs, even the officers. One of the officers is wounded in the head, shoulder, stomach, both arms and both feet.

A boy in my wards with a baby face showed me a beautiful silver enamelled and engraved watch. He got off a Ulan. He was treasuring it in his belt to take home to mother. I asked him if the Ulan was dead. Oh yes, he said, his face lighting up with glee.

We shot him. He was like a pepper pot when we got to him. Isn't it horrible? And like the boy in punch, he'd never killed anybody before he went to France. I wonder what mother will say to his cheerful little story.

I've been busy bursting a bad quincy with inhalers and fomentations. After a few hours he could sing Tipperary and drink a bottle of stout. There are two volunteer shop boys from a London territorial regiment who call me Madam from Force of Habit. Sunday, January 17th. We didn't unload at Bologna last night and are still 11am, taking them on to Entret Art,

a lovely place on the coast about 10 miles north of Athea. The hospital there is my old number general hospital that I'm mobilised with so it will be very jolly to see them all again. We are going through most lovely country on a clear sunny morning and none of the patients are causing any anxiety so it is an extremely pleasant journey and we shall have a good rest on the way back. 3 p.m. Just as I was beginning to forget there were such things as trenches and shrapnel and snipers, they told me a horrible story of two Camerons who got stuck in the mud and sucked down to their shoulders.

They took an hour and a half getting one out, and just as they said to the other, All right, Jock, we'll have you out in a minute. He threw back his head and laughed, and in doing so got sucked right under, and is still there. They said there was no sort of possibility of getting him out. It was like quicksand. One told me, not as such a very sensational fact, that he went for eleven weeks without taking off his clothes or a wash,

and then he had a hot bath and a change of everything. He remarked that he had to scrape himself with a knife. We have been travelling all day and shan't get to Etretariat till about 7pm. It is a mercy we got our bad cases off at Bologna. Pneumonias, enterics, two SFs, and some badly wounded, including the officer dressed in bandages, all over.

He was such a nice boy. When he was put into clean pyjamas and had a clean hanky with eau de cologne, he said, By Jove, it's worth getting hit for this, after the smells of dead horses, dead men, and dead everything. He said no one could get into Messianines.

where there is only one house left standing because of the unburied dead lying about. He couldn't move his arms, but he loved being fed with pigs of tangerine orange, and like so many, he was chiefly concerned with giving so much trouble. He looked awfully ill, but seldom stopped smiling of such other kingdom of heaven. Later, on the way to Avri, these are all bound for home and have been in hospital some time.

They are clean, shaved, clothed, fed and convalescent. Most of the lying downs are recovering from severe wounds of weeks back. It is quite new even to see them at that stage, instead of the condition we usually get them in. Some are the same ones we brought down from Bethune three weeks ago. One man was in a dugout going about twenty feet back from the trench,

with sixteen others taking cover from our howitzers and also from the enemies. The cultivated ground is so soft with wet that it easily gives, and the bursting of one of our shells close by drove the roof in and buried these seventeen. Four were killed and eleven injured by it, but only two were got out alive, and they were abandoned as dead. However, a rescue party of six faced the enemy's shells above ground and tried to get them out. In doing this, two were killed and two wounded. The other two went on with it.

My man and another man were pinned down by beans. The other had his face clear, but mine hadn't. Though he could hear the pics above him, he gave up all hopes of getting out. But the other man, when rescued, said he thought this one was still alive, and then got him out unconscious. when he came to he was in hospital in a chapel and it took him a long time to realize he was alive they generally take you into chapel before they bury you he said but i told him they'd done it the wrong way round with me that was the worst mess i ever got into in this war he finished up

wednesday january twentieth sotéville the others have all been out but i've been a bit lazy and stayed in washed my hair and mended my clothes this place is looking awfully pretty today because all the fields are flooded between us and the long line of high hills about a mile away and it looks like a huge lake with the trees reflected in it No orders to move, as usual. Ambulance trains travel as specials in a march, which means a gap in the timetable. There are only about two marches in 24 hours, and the RTOs have to fit the ATs into one or other of these marches.

When orders come, that number B*** AT is wanted. We do not get final orders of where our destination is till we get to Hesse-Brioch or Saint-Omer. We have been six days without a mail now and have taken loads to Etriart and to Avray. Thursday, January 21st.

We were not a whole day in Soteville for once. Moved out early this morning and are still travelling, 9pm, between Abbeville and Bologna. It has been a specially slow journey and alas, we didn't go by Armiennes, the only time we might have by daylight. Beauvais has a fine cathedral from the outside. I believe we are to go straight on from Bologna so we may not get our six days mail alas.

Friday January 22nd We didn't get into B till midnight, too late to get mails, and left early this morning. At Calais it was discovered that the kitchen had been left behind in shunting a store wagon, So we have been hung up all day waiting for it at St. Omer.

Went for a walk. It is a most interesting place to walk about in, swarming with every kind of war material, and the grey towers of the two cathedrals looked lovely in a blue sky. Such a dazzling day. We were able to get on with painting the train which is breaking out into the most marvellous

labelling, the orderlies competing with each other. But when at 6pm it seemed the day would never end, number B**** A T steamed up with our kitchen tacked on and in the kitchen was the mailbag. Joy of joys. We have just got to Bayeal.

10.30pm. A few guns banging. We are wondering if we shall clear the CL hospitals tonight, or wait till morning. Depends if they are expecting convoys in tonight and are full. 11pm.

P and I, fully rigged for night duty, have just been gloomily exploring the perfectly silent and empty station and street, wondering when the motor ambulances will begin to roll up, when B-held us from the train with 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, you two sillies, and the mages in bed, so now we can turn in and load up happily by daylight,

and it's my turn for the laying down, thank goodness, or rather the liars as they are called. Sunday, January 23rd, another blue, sunny, frosty morning. Loading up this morning was hard to attend to, as a thrilling tobe chase was going on overhead. The sky peppered with bursting shells and aeroplanes buzzing around. Didn't bring it down, though.

The train is full of very painful feet, like a form of a large burning chillblane all over the foot, and you can't do anything for them, poor lambs. Still Saturday, January 23rd. This is our first journey to Versailles. My only acquaintance with it was on the way up from Le Mans to Villeneuve

to join this train. Two kind sisters living in a sort of little ticket office in the middle of the line washed and fed me at 6am in between two trains. But I saw nothing of the glories of Versailles. Hope to tomorrow.

I don't think the men will get much sleep. Their feet are too bad, but we are going to give them a good chance with drugs, the last thing. We shall do the night in three watches.

Sunday, January 24th, 5am, Versailles. They've had a pretty good night, most of them. If you see any compartment, say six sitters and two top liars, showing signs of being near the end of their tether with bad feet

and long hours of the train, You have only to say cheerfully, How are you getting on in this dugout? For every man to brighten visibly. And there is a chorus of, If our dugouts was like this, I reckon we wouldn't want no relieving. And a burst of wit and merriment follows.

You can try it all down the train. It never fails. They are all in first class coaches, not thirds or seconds. 9.30am They have only four M.A.s and the hospital is one and a half miles off, so all our 366 limping, muddy scarecrows are not off yet.

There is a mist and a piercing north wind and lots of mud. The A.T.s do so much bringing the British Army from the field that I hope some other trains are busy bringing the British Army to the field, or there can't be many left in the field. they told me another story of a man in the royal scots who was sunk in mud up to his shoulders and the officer offered a canteen of rum and a sovereign to the first who could get him out

for five hours thirteen men were digging for him but it filled up always as they dug and when they got him out he died six p m just getting to rouen properly to load for they do keep us moving we just had time to go and see the palais trianon with the french sergeant who is nearly a gentleman and an artist is there anything else quite like it anywhere else it was dfens d'entrer so we only wandered around the grounds and looked in at the windows down the avenues and round the ponds in hundreds of statues and went up the great escalier louis cartorc certainly did himself proud it was a long way to go and we were walking for hours till we got dog-tired after the long load from bayiol and after lunch we tired firmly on to our beds i don't think we should take patients on to-night Monday, January 25th.

We've been at Sotofiel all day, had time to read last week's Times, an exceptionally interesting lot. Have just had orders to load up at Rouen for Afre tomorrow. Then I hope we shall go back to Bologna. We have not stayed more than an hour or two in Bologna since January 9th. That is for 17 days.

But we've managed to just pick up our mails every few days while unloading the bad cases. we ought to get back there for a mile on Thursday we have taken down a good many Northamptons lately they seem an exceptionally seasoned and intelligent lot and have been through the thick of everything since Mons

did I tell you that in one place I don't suppose it is the same all along the line they are doing 48 hours in the trenches followed by 48 hours back in billets, barns etc for six times and then 12 days rest

When they get themselves and their rifles cleaned, they have armour as shops for this. They nearly all say that only the men who are quite certain they will never get back say they want to. If any others say it, well, they're liars. But for all that, you do find one here and there who means it. One Canadian asked how long he'd be sick with his feet.

I want to get back to the regiment, he said. They seemed rather out of it with the Tommies, some of them. just had a grand hot bath from a passing engine in exchange for chocolate. We shall have a quiet night tonight. Sauterville is the quietest place we ever sleep in.

There is no squealing of whistles and shouting of French rowelmen, as in all the big stations. Last night they were shunting and jigging us about all night between Rouen and Sauterville. Slow bumping over hundreds of points is much worse to sleep in than fast travelling. In either case, you wake whenever you pull up or start off, but we shall miss the train when we get into a dull hotel bedroom or belay, or perhaps a tent.

My month at Le Mans in Madame's beautiful French bed was the one luxury I've struck so far. Tuesday, 26th January, a dazzling blue spring day. As we were not going into Lode at Rouen till 3pm, we went for the most glorious walk in this country. We crossed the ferry over the Seine to the foot of the steep, high line of hills, which eventually overlooks Rouen, and climbed up to the top by a lovely, winding, woody path in the sun. The boatman congratulated us on the sinking of the blue shirt.

As a naval man, I suppose. Who said war? said P. while we were waiting on the shingle for the boat. It did seem very remote. At the top we got to the church of Le Bon Secours. which is in a very fine position with a marvellous view.

We had some lovely cider in a very clean pub with a garden, and then took the tram down a very steep track into Rowan. I was standing in the front of the tram for the view over Rowan, which was dazzling, with the spires and the river and the bridges, when we turned a sharp corner and smashed bang into a market cart coming up our track.

For a moment one thought the man and woman and the horse must be done for, the horse disappeared under the train and there arose such a screaming that the three tommies and i fell over each other trying to get out to the rescue when we did we found the man and woman had been luckily shot clear out of the tram except that the man's hand was torn and the old woman was frantically screaming mon cheval mon cheval mon cheval at least a hundred times without stopping the others were out by this time and the two tram people and the french clack went on at its top speed while p and the tommies and a very clever old woman out of the tram tried to cut the horse clear of the broken cart and i did up the man's hand with our hankies the only one concerned least was the horse who kept quiet with its legs mixed up in the tram at last the tram succeeded in moving clear of the horse without hurting it and it was got up smiling after all

the outside old woman went on picking up the fish in the harness etc the man was taken off to have his hand bathed and the poor old woman of the cart stopped screaming mon cheval mon cheval and went off to have a drink and we walked on and found a train at rouen that sort of thing is always happening in france i hope the overworked people at the heads of the various departments of the british army realize how much the men appreciate what they try and do for them in the trenches if you ask what the billets are like they say barnes and such like they do the best they can for us if you ask if the trench conditions are as bad for the germans they say they are worse off they ain't looked after like what we are nine thirty p m on the way to avray i was just going to say that from the sienne to l'avray there's nothing to report when i came across a young educated german in my wards with his left leg off from the hip and his right from below the knee and a bad shell wound in his arm or heeled now done at e prez on twenty fourth of october and i had an hour's most thrilling and heated conversation with him in german he was very down on the english sisters in hospital because he says they hated him and didn't treat him like the rest

i said that was because they couldn't forget what his regiment bavarians had done to the belgian woman and children and old men and the french and he said he couldn't forget how the belgian woman had put out the eyes of the german wounded at liege and thrown boiling water on them i said they were driven to it i have since found that no sort of evidence was brought forward by the germans to support this charge and it is emphatically denied by the belgian authorities i asked him a lot of straight questions about germany and the war and he answered equally straight he said they had food in germany for ten years and that they had ten million men and that all the present students would be in the army later on and that practically the supply could never stop and i said that however long they could go on in the end there would be no more germany because she was up against five nations he said no man has any fear of a russian soldier and that though they were slower over it they would get paris but not london except by zeppelins he admitted that it would be sur schwer to land troops in england and that our navy was the best but we had so few soldiers they hardly counted he got very excited over the zeflins i asked why the germans hated the english

and he said in berlin we do not speak of the english at all it is the french and the russians we hate he said the turks were no good zu heflin and austria not much better he was very down on belgium for resisting in the first place and said the schuld was with france and russia they were very much astonished when england didn't remain neutral he had the cheek to say that three german soldiers were as good as twenty english so i assured him that five english could do for fifty germans and went on explaining carefully to him how there could be no more germany in the end because the right must win and he said so you say in england but we know otherwise in duchland and i am a german so as i am in english we had to agree to differ his faith in his verteland nearly made him cry and must have given him a temperature i felt quite used up afterwards he is fast asleep now there is also an old soldier of sixty-three who says general french and general smith dorian photographed him as the oldest soldier in the british army he has four sons in it one killed two wounded

he is with general lowe in the citrail expedition and is called donald mcdonald of the k o s b s s unfortunately i was reduced to the ranks for being drugged the other day he said gaily but the captain he said don't lose art mcdonald you'll get it all back wednesday january twenty seventh they have found a way of warming our quarters when we have not an engine on i don't know what we should have done without it to-day it is icy cold mails to-morrow hooray going to turn in early thursday january twenty eighth got to bologna this morning have been getting stores in and repairs done expect to be sent up any time sharp frost and cold wind friday january twenty ninth one of those difficult to bear days hung up all day at a place beyond st amir listening to guns and doing nothing when there's so much to be done the lion is probably too busy to let us up it happens to be a dazzling blue day which must be wiping off fifty per cent of the horrors of the front the other fifty per cent is what they are out for and see the meaning of we are to go in an hour's time destination unknown

Saturday, January 30th. We got up to Merviel at 1 o'clock last night and loaded up only 45 and are now just going to load up again at a place on the way back. We have been completely done out of the La Garcia business. Haven't been near it. Number B*** CLH that we saw on December 27th, where SC and two more of my number B*** GH friends were,

had to be evacuated in a hurry as several orderlies were killed in the shelling. One of my badly wounded, says the Major, whose servant he has been for four years, asked him to make up the fire in his dugout while he went to the other end of the trench. While he was doing the fire a shell burst over the dugout and a bit went through his left leg and touched his right.

If the Major had been sitting in his chair where he was a minute before, his head would have been blown off, he said. when the major came back and found me he drove everybody else away and stayed with me all day and made me cocoa and at night carried my stretcher himself and took me right to headquarters his eyes shine when he talks of the major and he seems so proud he got it instead

i asked a boy in the sitting ups what was the matter with him too small he said another said too young he was aged fifteen in the black watch a young monkey badly wounded in hand and throat lighting a cigarette the shatter to his hand saved worse destruction to his throat though bad enough as it is

afterward settled him in fixed his eye on me and said are you going to be in here alone of us all the way yes I said that's a good job and he is taking good care to get his money's worth I can tell you

some of them are roaring at the man in punch who made a gallant attempt to do justice to all his Christmas presents at once. There is a Sergeant Major of the Royal Scots, very indignant of having been made to go sick with bad feet. Any attempt to fuss over him is met with,

I need no attention whatsoever, thank you sister, I feel more like apologising for being in here, only five weeks of active service, he growled. The latest Franco-British idea is to harass the Boches until they are gone. Saturday, January 31st. We did go on to Rouen. B is full

to the brim. We have only unloaded at B three times since Christmas. I'm beginning to think we waste a lot of sympathy on the poor wounded rocking in a train all night after being on it all day. One of mine with a bullet still in his chest and some pneumonia who seemed very ill when he was put on at Merville, said this morning he felt a lot better, and had had the best night for five days, and my fidgety boy with the wound in his throat made a terrible fuss at being put

off at Bologna when he found he was the only one in his compartment to go, and that I wasn't going with him. I had the easy watch last night because of my cold, and went to bed at 1am, got a hot bath this morning and lay low all day till a stroll between the seine and the floods after tea sotéville there are four trains waiting here and the cs's have been skating on the floods we move on at one o'clock tonight number a t had a bomb dropped each side of their train at bayeal but they didn't

explode the french instruction books have come and i am going to start the french class for the men on the train. They are very keen to learn, chiefly I think, to make a little more running with the French girls at the various stopping places. Two officers last night were awfully sick and not been taken off at B, but I think they'll get home from Rouen. One said he must get home if only for ten minutes to feel he was out of France. Wednesday, February 3rd. Moved on last night and woke up at

bayeal some badly wounded on the train but not on my half on the other beat beyond rouen the honeysuckle is in leaf the catkins are out and the woods are full of buds what a difference it will make when spring comes on this side it is all canals bogs and pollards and the eternal mud we found pinned on a sock from a london school child whosoever receives this when you return conqueror drop me a line and then her name and address thursday february fourth for once we unloaded at b and went to bed instead of taking them on all night till moved out of b at five a m breakfast at saint o where we nearly got left behind strolling on the line during a wait we are going to move a l in the mining district where l is three p m we have just taken on about seventy indians mostly sick some badly wounded they are much cleaner than they used to be in clothes but not alas in habits aeroplanes are chasing a tub overhead but it has not been shelled guns are making a good noise all around we are waiting for a convoy of british now it is a lovely afternoon the guns were shaking the train just now one big bang made us all pop our heads out of the windows to look for the bomb but it wasn't a bomb a rosy-faced white-haired colonel just came up to me and said you've brought us more firing this afternoon than we've heard in a long time

we are fulling up with british wounded now on the other half of the train it is getting late and we shan't unload to-night later we were hours loading up because all the motor drivers are down with flu and there were only two available the rest are all busy bringing wounded into the clearing hospital the spell of having the train full of slight medical cases and bad feet seems to be over and wounded are coming on again three of my sitting-up indians have temperatures of a hundred and four so you can imagine what the lying downs are like they are very anxious cases to look after partly because they are another race and partly because they can't explain their wants and they seem to want to be let die quietly in a corner rather than fall in with your notions of their comfort at baiel on our last journey we took on a heavenly white puppy just old enough to lap quite wee and white and fat he cries when he wants to be nursed and barks in a lovely falsetto when he wants to play and waddles after our feet when we take him for a walk but he likes being carried best some tommies on a truck at railhead brought him up for us they adore his little mother and two brothers friday february fifth bologna we did get in late last night and got to bed at one a m they are unloading during the night again now and also loading up at night

one boy last night lost his right hand his left arm and leg were wounded and both his eyes yes i've got more than my share he said but i'll get over it all right i didn't happen to answer for a minute and in a changed voice he said shan't i shan't i of course i assured him that he'd get quite well and that he was ticketed to go straight to an eye specialist thank god for that he said as if the eye specialist had already cured him but it is doubtful if any eye specialist will save his eyes to-day has been a record day of brilliant sun blue sky and warm air and it has transformed the muddy sloppy dingy bologna of the last two months into something more like we couldn't stop on the train there were no orders likely in spite of being tired but went into town in the morning and on the lawnstone pier in the afternoon and then to tea at the buffet at the maritime where you have tea with real milk and fresh butter and jam not out of a tin and a table-cloth and a china cup luxuries beyond description on the pier there were gulls and a sunny sort of salt wind and big waves breaking and a glorious view of the steep little town piled up in layers above the harbour which is packed with shipping

End of chapter 7 Recording by Marianne Coleman-Hipkins