France
30-9-18
Dear May,
I forget just when I wrote last so I suppose it is time I wrote again. Well my luck still holds good & at present I am at a school well behind the line & will be here for about 5 weeks I expect. I got a 2nd stripe out of the push & was sent down here for a Lewis gun course but have been transferred to a full general course lasting 5 weeks which is a decided win as the L.G. course was only to be a fortnight. It is a pretty good home here, good food, baths etc & very decent instructors. According to my reckoning tomorrow is Oct 1st so I suppose it is my birthday. It is quite a change to spend it peacefully, last one I spent floundering around the outskirts of Passchendalle & the one before we were going strong on the Somme front. I believe our Battn is into it again & pushed a bit further towards Cambrai yesterday so that had I
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remained with them I should have had another birthday outing. I don’t know how much I told you about the recent stunt but it was a good affair, & old Jerry seemed only too willing to put his hands up. Of course they knew that they were only fighting rearguard actions & it takes a bit of fighting spirit to carry on when they know the rest of their army is miles behind & heading the other way. However most of the crowd we struck put up a very poor fight, & seemed to have their tails down. What will happen at the Hindenberg line remains to be seen, the German heads will undoubtedly decide to make a stand there, but that is one thing & getting the men to do it is another, & I don’t believe they have enough of that quality known as “guts” to put up a really determined opposition. By the way none of the prisoners we took seemed to be afraid of being eaten alive, they just smiled & said “New Zealander come too quick.” They were all well clothed & had plenty of black bread. I saw a few tins of bully about
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but nothing else in the way of food. Those who sampled his bully reckon it is good but I didn’t try it this time. Among captured documents recently a Hun order was found directing transport Offs to see that all horses killed in action were cut up & sent back for food, & we frequently saw evidence of the order being complied with. A smashed up timber with 4 horse shoes & a set of bare ribs lying around, tells a pretty plain tale. His sandbags are a trifle amusing. I had heard of paper sandbags but had never seen them before. I will enclose a small piece of the material & if you unroll one of the threads you will see how it is made. They are not nearly as strong as ours but serve the purpose almost as well. Twisted paper ropes are used for tying them up in bundles. I have one or two small souvenirs, but have not had a chance of posting them yet. Jim Hargest was in charge of the Battn right through the stunt & got a well earned D.S.O. for it. He is one of the best officers we have got out here
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& I expect he will be made a Lt Col. soon. I am sorry to say he has been transferred from our Batt. & we have got old Charters again. One very noticeable thing in the push was the number of crosses Fritz had erected over our men who fell during his big drive last Spring. It was quite a common thing to see “3 unknown Englanders” or “1 Kaptain & 2 men” painted on a properly made cross. Some times their name & Regts were given. It is quite unusual for either side to go to so much trouble. Of course it is quite possible that he had a gang of Belgian or French civilian prisoners on the job as it had been well behind his line at one time. So much for the war. I told you I had another stroke which means an extra bob a day. I draw 9d of it here & the other 3d a day goes onto my allotment, so that you should draw three shillings & three pence. The increase dates from Aug 26th ’18, and while on the subject I had better mention again that I want Mother to start a
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fresh P.O. Saving Bank A/C so that if necessary she can draw from it. At present she can’t draw on my a/c, so in future she can pay it all to the new a/c & then it will be available if I want it. I think she will have to run the A/C in her own name. I mentioned it a while ago but have repeated it in case of accident. I don’t think there is much more news. I met Bert McMullan (Uncle Charlies nephew) a few weeks ago. He is in our Battn. Ernie was supposed to come to France about a week ago but have heard nothing further. He had his six days draft leave so they must have intended sending him back here. Willie Hope has been in Blighty for a few weeks but I don’t think he has come across here yet. He wrote to Porthill but he had not been to see them when Elsie wrote last. I suppose Walt will be the next to arrive, but there
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is time for a lot to happen before then. I see they have got N.Z. furlough going again but my turn is too far off yet even to look forward to. A good many later reifts are applying for & being granted special leave on private & business grounds & as there is limited accommodation it means that older hands are kept waiting. There are of course cases where special leave is urgently required but I know a lot of them are taking an unfair advantage of the scheme. My leave will be due in six weeks but there is still a good sprinkling of mainbody men with the Coys, to say nothing of the crowds of them in jobs in England. Will have to stop now to see what the cook wants me for.
Hooray for the present
Love Len
P.S. The messroom is alive with all sorts of wild rumours about a wonderful big push up the line. I hope it is right, but I suppose you’ll know the truth as soon as we do.
