Читать книгу To Fight Alongside Friends: The First World War Diaries of Charlie May - David Crane - Страница 12

At last we are in France! We had no word in Folkestone of what they wanted us to do until 3 p.m. Then it came in a hurry that we were to embark at 4 p.m. A rush and a hurry and then the job was done, the whole battalion getting aboard intact. It was a good passage till about ten minutes out from here but then we ran into the rain.ⁱ At 3.30 p.m. the battalion finally sailed, with destroyer escort, for Boulogne.

What rain! Bow-wow. And it must have been going all day. They have put us into tents on the top of a hill and the whole place is a quag with running streams feet deep all about it.ⁱⁱ

We are soaked to the skin and cheery as the devil. Cotton, Don Murray, Bowlyⁱⁱⁱ and myself are in one tent all cuddled up close together for warmth. 10.20 p.m.

Townsend^iv has just poked his head under the flap and asked for shelter. The CO’s tent has blown down and its three occupants are hunting for homes. We have taken Towny in and he is now cheerily pessimistic, wondering why he joined the Army and expressing the wish that his mother could see him now.

We are a happy party, even though wet.

My stars, what strange creatures men are. Six months ago and half these fellows would have been half dead with less than half this dampness and now here we are happy as Larry and busily preparing for sleep. And all because it is war!