France Billets
17-7-17
Dear Everybody.
It’s 9 o’clock of a glorious Monday evening, & under such conditions it is sometimes hard to believe that there is such an upheval going on in front of us. We are out resting at present & having a jolly good time. Weather conditions are excellent, the men are very fit & enjoying a well earned rest. Just giving them enough drill in the mornings to enable good discipline to be maintained. The afternoons are spent in sports, & very excellent sports too, besides keeping the men fit it seems to create excellent spirit amongst them. It really is wonderful how a few days change them. After heavy fighting they come out quite sober souls but a few days of this life, & they are their old selves again, going about whistling & singing like larks. Their spirit is great & it is going to take more than the Huns can give us to break it. You will have read in the papers of the slight reverse the British met with on the Belgian Coast. I must confess it came to most of us as a considerable surprise, but I can also assure you that its effect was practically nil, & only very local. Military circles here attach absolutely no importance to it whatever. A political stroke on the Huns part, most probably. By the time this reaches you the situation will in all probability have been retrieved & in no unmeasured terms. Poor Fritz he little knows what is in store for him, or if he does one could almost feel sorry for
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him. My last letter would give you to understand that I was going on leave. Well that most excellent page of this gay life has been turned, & some turning too. No need to elaborate mow much the brief 10 days were enjoyed. Sufficient to say, that I landed in bonnie old Blighty about 4 P.M. on the 4th & left it again about 6 P.M. on the 14th. The whole of the time I spent practically in the little village. On the 6th I went down to Walton to see Kate, she by the way, came up to London & went to a Theatre with the Hooper girls & myself on the night of the 5th. It was a glorious piece & we all enjoyed it very much. “Romance” was the piece, & I really believe that the leading Lady, Doris Keane is the best actress in the U.K. & some even go so far as to say she is the best in the world. Anyhow it was excellent & I will leave it at that. Well I arrived at Walton on the 6th, I refuse to think or remember what days they were. I saw Kate for about 10 minutes before going into lunch with the M.O.s. When we came out about an hour later she, Kate, greeted me with the news that she had just received orders to report at H.Q. London at once. This is of course settled all our plans, & we realized that it was France for her some time on the 7th. In due course we arrived at H.Q. London, & sure enough she along with 6 other Sisters, she in charge of course, were to leave Charing Cross at 1 P.M. on the 7th enroute to Boulogne via Folkstone. It was a bit of a rotter, but with true military discipline we realized right off that orders were orders & what had to be, had to be. We wondered
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What we would do with the few hours on hand. Theatres naturally were suggested but did not meet with genuine or spontaneous approval from either side. An electric wave suggested the London Home, & London Home it was. We arrived about 6 P.M. & spent a rare evening indeed, one we are not likely to forget for some time. It is not too much to say again, that what the Hoopers have not done for us is not worth doing, they are white through & through. I went back to Walton with Kate & stayed the night at one of the Hotels, that is what was left of the night. I had a look round the Hospital next morning while Kate was getting ready, & saw most of the men of the Batt that happened to have landed there. It is splendid to see the way they are, they all seem to be in good spirits & without exception all speak of how well they are being cared for. We got back to London about 11.30 A.M. on the 7th & after attending to a few little odds & ends that Kate wanted we had to proceed to Charing Cross station. It will be a long time before Kate has as many good friends as she had at Walton, they were genuinely sorry that she was going, & I think Kate was also. However, the station reached, & the Hoopers all came up to see her off. What with one person & another, she had quite a little crowd to wish her the best of luck in her new sphere of work. Kathleen Hooper had to go off to a christening, & Gwen, owing to an aeroplane raid
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did not get up, so that left just Mr & Mrs Hooper & myself. Mrs Hooper was very much upset over the raid, it was an extraordinary affair. There were some 22 Hun planes, & they flew very close & dropped bombs quite near the Hoopers house. Mrs Hooper is very nervous about them. Ayhow I thought I would do something to make her forget, so I took them both to a Theatre, a Matinee of “High Jinks”. She would not forget the raid for quite a long time & would keep on saying that she was sure they would come again in the afternoon. However about half way through, the piece began to force its way into her mind, & before long she was enjoying it immesely. This a rapping piece, & affords one the best of hearty laughs. It did them both good, Mrs in particular. I went home with them for dinner & both Gwen & I went back in the evening to see another piece “London’s Pride”. It too is jolly good & we enjoyed it thoroughly. For the 8th we had arranged a trip into the country, & real old time picnic it was to be, the weather however put a damper on the whole thing, it simply teemed all day. Seeing that out door entertainment was out of the question, we scouted rounded for something indoors, & managed to light on a ripping good Concert at the Albert Hall. We bundled out to this, & it was raining heavens hard. However we were well rewarded, it was one of the finest things I have heard, heard nothing approaching it since I was in London last. So you see fair weather or wet there is always something one can do to amuse ones self in the quaint little old village.
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Heavy eyelids caused a halt at the end of last page. However, as C.O. Batt. what what! one has a little more spare time than one has as Coy. Commander, hence my ability to continue this at 3.30 P.M. today. To follow on with my story, I went down to the N.Z. hospital at Brockenhurst on the 8th & stayed there until the morning of the 10th. A number of our officers are down there, & what a time they are having. I do not know whether any of you know Capt Rae or not, he is a Southland man, anyhow he was there, & being a particular cobber of mine you can guess we had some time. He & I were looking over a part of the line in front of Messines that we were to take over, when he received his wound. It is rather a nice one he got, one that is healing slowly, but enables him to get about on his pins all right. He was wounded in the thumb of the right hand. Well, we dined together that night & next day in Coy with Sister Wilkie, we hired a car, & went for a glorious motor run through Hants. We left Brockenhurst at 11 A.M. & arrived back at 9.30 P.M. some run I can assure you. Enroute we passed through the New Forrest, a glory initself at this time of year. Salisbury saw us for lunch, & we also had a look round the old Cathedral. Tidworth was my real objective, & from Salisbury we went through Amesbury Bulford & Sling arriving Tidworth about 3 P.M. The old Adj & Col. of the cavalry Regt. to which I was attached for some time last year, gave me a great welcome the Col. inviting the lots of us in for tea.
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Needless to say we accepted & enjoyed it all very much. The Col. & Adj were highly delighted over my promotions. While there I met a Major in the cavalry, in the 10th Hussars, who was living for one night in the house on Messines Ridge which was this Coys. objictive for the recent operations. He was highly delighted & very interested in our operations. We left there about 4.30 P.M. & started on our homeward journey, passing through Shipton Bellinger, Winchester & Lyndhurst. At Winchester we had a little run round, & I managed to pick up another little spoon, which I sent off from there, & hope you will receive all right. We dined very well at Lyndhurst & continued our journey via Southampton & New Forrest to Brockenhurst, arriving 9.30 P.M. I really had intended getting back to Brockenhurst in time to catch 4.30 train up to London, but once under way we were enjoying the run so much that we gave up the idea. I left Brocken. at 10.39 on the morning of the 11th & arrived at Walton about 2.P.M. I spent the afternoon looking round some of our boys & had tea with Kates great friend Nurse Davies. I am afraid the feelings regarding Kate’s departure to France are pretty mutual in that quarter. Kate will go a long way before she finds a better friend. The little village saw me again at 7.P.M. By the time I had had dinner it was too late to go to any of the good Theatres, so I contented myself with a trip to the Pallodium & I must put on record that that was the only Dud. I struck during the holiday. The London Home saw me again at 12.30. A.M. During the two days absence the Hoopers had
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got in touch with Garfield Stewart, & I was able to arrange a meet with him in London, for lunch at 1.P.M. on the 12th. He is doing a pilots course with the R.F.C. & is getting on tip top, hopes to be through in a couple of months. I met him for lunch all right, & we dined at an old place known as Chesshire Cheese, just off Fleet Street, & famous because it is where Dr Johnstone of dictionary fame, always went for his lunch. It is a fine old place, & unless one knew the history of it, one would hardly be induced to enter its doors, it is most uninviting. However the meals are of the best, I do not think you can dine better anywhere in London, the price also is of the best. Garfield had several things to attend to during the afternoon, amongst others what we were going to do in the evening. We decided on “General Post” & promptly secured four seats in center of the Stalls. The Hooper girls met us & we dined at the Picadilly Hotel at seven & on to the Theatre at 8.P.M. Some dinner, some show, I can assure you. We had rare old time, & enjoyed the show from start to finish. It is quite one of the finest things in London & also affords plent of good healthy amusement. On the 13th I went out to where Garfield is training, had lunch there, & afterwards he showed me round the Aerodrome, I am quite an authority on planes now. Stayed to tea with him, & returned to the city for dinner with Sister Malcolm, you have heard me, or rather I have written of her before. The Hooper girls met us at 8 o’clock & we all went
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to another Theatre, this time “The Maid of The Mountains”, & a very pretty piece too. The scenery was all done by Oscar Asche, & it is most gorgeous. There is no mistaking his style, quite apart & I believe above anything else in London. He of course was not in the play, he is still running Chu Chin Chow, I saw him in that last year. The music in Maid of the Mountains is splendid, & it ended all too soon. However it leaves pleasant memories to bring back to France, & one can do with them out here at times. We arrived at Blackheath about 12.30, after having seen Sister Malcolm safely away from Waterloo Station. This brings me up to the 14th & the last day in “Bonnie old Blight” for some days weeks eh! month to come. Anyhow, we made the best of it, I managed to get the Hoopers to lunch with me at mid-day at another famous old Restaurant in the Strand. It was a merry little party of five that sat down to lunch, & I think we did justice to all the good stuff set before us. My train left at 3.30.P.M. thanks to recent promotion, otherwise I would have to have left the little village about 8.A.M. The afternoon train is only for Staff officers & officers of & above the rank of Major. My leave really ended when the train commenced to pull out from old Charing Cross Station, for there is not much fun attached to travelling by leave trains & boats, particularly in France. We had to stay the night in Boulogne,
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& the train for the front left at 4.A.M. That was bringing one back to real life with a jerk don’t you think. The journey up should not take more than 3 1/2 hours, but it took us a little over seven, some trains in France I assure you. The fact of the Batt being out of the line was some little compensation however, & one does not feel the change so much. While in London my N.Z. mail came to hand, & very nice too. Letters dateing from 10th up to 20th May, & very representative of the two Islands too. On my return I had a couple from Charl, first I have had for some month now. In the latest he wrote from the “Aotea Home” & at time of writing seemed to be pretty well over his trouble. I have not seen George Wilson since coming back from leave, have not been very close to the old 2nd Batt. I nearly forgot to mention that we are camped in the billets I came to, when first coming to France. We don’t get very far away from this part of the country do we. Perhaps in a while, eh! I must acknowledge receipt of letter from Eileen, am afraid I am a poor correspondent for you Eileen, however, I trust you do not take offence, & will just “keep on keep’in on.” The letters to hand are the first I have had addressed as Capt. shows how long it takes information to filter through. If I do not stop soon, the Col. will be thinking I am writing a book. He came back
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from Bde. this morn. This of course leaves me in Comm. of Batt. for a few days yet, some Nut eh! I nearly forgot to say that I spent a night with Kate in her new home in France. She is not quite settled down yet, but will be all right after a bit. Air raids have been troubling her a little, but of course one must expect that up here, & they really are not serious. At least we do not attach any importance to them. Auckland folk have done well this mail, a divided house has its advantages from a soldiers mail point of view, at least. I really must be off. You will hear more of us anon. Cheerioh! for the present & believe me to be as fit as the fittest.
Your Affect Brother
E.S. McI.
P.S. Please excuse this paper, it is all I could lay hands on.
E.S.
