France
11-11-18
Dear Mother
You will have heard the good news by now I suppose, & I know how glad you will be to think that the job is as good as finished. My luck has lasted well & when hostilities ceased was still going strong with my old Battn, & in the pink of condition. What will happen to us now remains to be seen but I hope to be home within 6 months, but before I go I want at least another week or two on the loose in Blighty, & one in Paris. Billy Hope joined up a week or two ago & was in the recent
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fighting. I have met both him & Bert McMullen today & both are well. I think I told you that Ernie had been in France again & got a smack in the hand or shoulder & is back in Blighty. Had a letter from Mark a few days ago & he tells me he is in Blighty on his way to N.Z. on tour of duty & was getting married on the 6th of this month, so I suppose you should see him about the time this arrives. He left while I was at a school so that I didn’t see him after he got orders to go. I think you know that he is marrying a Blighty cousin, which by the way seems to be a favourite hobby of the N.Zers.
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I suppose you saw all about the capture of Le Quesnoy in the paper. It was one of our last stunts & a great success. Of course we took the whole show as a going concern with Hun garrison, civies & everything complete, & didn’t the civvies give us a great hearing. I can tell you the “Nouvelle Zealanders” were “tres bon”. I never saw so much kissing & mugging going on in all my life. Old & young (not to mention the middle aged) seemed to think that it was a privilege to salute the relieving troops in real French style. I never saw such enthusiasm in my life. We only stayed about there for 6 days & the people couldn’t do enough for
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us. We were about the only troops in the town & every time we marched along the streets the people used to cheer & wave flags & when the bands played they nearly went mad. The day after it was taken one Bgde marched the captured garrison round & round the square while the band played the Marseillaise. On Sunday President Poincare visited the town & we supplied a big guard of honour. It was a great show, everyone turned out & there was a real entente cordial. Hardly one of them could “compree” a word of English but that didn’t make any difference, the expressions were sufficiently eloquent. It was a
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wild day & one of the most memorable of our experience. I was quite sorry to leave the place, their friendship seemed genuine & they made such a fuss of us. When we marched out they all turned out waving flags & pretty well every one of them wore at least one N.Z. badge or button & of course there was a corresponding shortage on the “soldats” hats & tunics. It was a real good finish up to our fighting life. We just stayed there long enough to see the cessation of hostilities & within an hour after we were outside the walls of the town. I don’t suppose we’ll ever see it again, but it is one of the few French towns that we will always
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have pleasant memories of. Well I could write for hours but had better cut it down a bit or I’ll have nothing left to tell you when I come home, & besides I’m not sure that I am not infringing censorship regulations already. I don’t think there is any more news of importance so will make this do just now. I expect this will be about the last letter you’ll get before the holidays so must wish you all the Happiest of times. Sorry I won’t have time to get back but you can trust me to have the best of what is going here, & long before next Xmas I’ll be back with you all & making up for lost time.
Love from
Len
