[censored] Sat. 25th Feb
Dear May,
Another week is over & we are still here & as far as we know we are not likely to shift, for a few more weeks at any rate. It is six months today since we landed in Trentham all excitement because we were off to the war & here we are now just waiting for orders to get into it & we are all as unconcerned as possible. I didn’t think I could ever have settled down to take things with such indifference. No matter what the order is every body takes it in a matter-of-fact sort of way & nobody worries about anything. The training is getting slightly monotonous but as long as the weather doesn’t get much hotter we will stand it for a while yet. This week has been an easy one. Since the big day I told you of they have cut the afternoon parade out. We parade from 8.30 to 12 or 12.30 & have dinner in camp & then go for a swim & are expected to go in for some kind of sport during the afternoon. It is a sensible idea & we feel a long way better this weekend than we did last. Two nights this week we were out for about an hour for visual training but it is easy work & rather interesting.
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Last night we had the joke of the season. About ten sailors off one of the boats came up from the canal to have a look through the camp. They soon made a few friends who got them onto horses & sent them for a ride. I don’t think any of them had been on horseback before & as they joggled through the camp pretty well every body turned out to laugh at them. The horses went where they liked, & at their own pace. Some wandered through among our tents & others went careering away up the bank of the canal but wherever they went they caused screams of laughter. One chap had got about 1/2 a mile past when his hat bounced off, he dismounted & went back for it but neglected to drop anchor. In the meantime his mate’s horse had decided there was something wrong & turned for home & came tearing along, of course the other horse followed but I don’t think Jack was sorry to have to walk back. The two horses continued at full pace right past us & although the one rider was still on he was rolling badly & was evidently in difficulties. With one hand he was hanging to the front of the saddle & with the other he held the reins right at the very end & in order to keep them tight he was holding his hand away above his head. The
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horse evidently believed in the “any port in a storm” policy & when it came to our horse lines it swerved quickly leaving poor old Jack with an ugly list to starboard, but it was only temporary, before we could see whether he was going to right himself or not the horse had stopped short & all we got was a momentary glimpse of a pair of wide trousers aeroplaning in among the horses. Other members of the party had similar experiences & only two or three out of the lot managed to make port & there were derelect horses all through the camp. However no one was hurt & every one was happy. They had tea in camp & stayed the evening & judging by their singing as the rolled away home they had thoroughly enjoyed their day ashore. I have just seen an aeroplane loop-the-loop. Was sitting in the tent writing & heard it going overhead but we are so used to them that I didn’t look out until I heard the crowd cheer & I just got out in time to see it turn two complete somersaults. It was about 1500 feet up & looked lovely. It looked so easy, you’d think it couldn’t go wrong. I am longing to get a chance to have a fly but I am afraid I won’t get it here. You know they are just as safe as motor cars & it looks great to see them gliding through the sky. I have seen them about 50 feet over my head & I have seen them so high that they
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are hardly visible & you can’t tell them from skylarks. I wish you could be here to have a look at them. You will remember the one we saw at the Gore Show but they are nothing to look at on the ground. Last week we put in a few days at the targets, the first since leaving N.Z. Most of the work is sort of collective & we don’t know our individual scores but in the “grouping” a chap Murrell, from Manapouri, & I scored possibles being the only two in the regiment. We fired with our ordinary rifle & ammunition at a 25 yds range & I got my 5 shots within in an inch circle. The target is just a plain white square without a bullseye on it & we are supposed to aim at the same place every time & see how small a group the hits make. It is the size of group that counts & not the position. Inside a 1 inch circle counts 25, inside 2 in’s 20, inside 4 in’s 15, & 4 in a 4 in & one wide counts 10. It was noticeable that the later reinfts did better shooting than the mainbody men, they say that it is a matter of nerves, the new men being much steadier than those who suffered the strain on the peninsular. I don’t think there is any more news this time. Haven’t seen Min Looney yet but I believe she came with the 9th. Andy Willocks is our Q.M.S here & is in the next tent to us.
Love to All
Len
Two chaps in our tent landed parcels of cake this week. One was posted on Nov 20th & the other Jan 6th & both arrived together. Others posted in Nov have not arrived yet.
