First World War Letters Home November 1918 |
Back in France, war is over, refugees returning slowly ...
S.S.A.3
France
November 20th 1918
My Dear Mother,
I got back here Monday evg. & found section in a more or less wrecked village 15k from St. Quentin, really flat country. Just here & most uninteresting. Doing hospital jobs round about. Got fairly decent quarters in farm houses, fires which is a great thing & I have installed a stove in my little room which was icy cold & I call this calf pen, as it only has ½ a door & one has to bend double when one goes in & out & I’ve already banged my head once …
This aft. noon I went for long walk with a fellow through a wood to see one of the emplacements of a Bertha that shelled Paris, rather interesting. Lovely aft. noon till 4, then damn fog came on. It is a bleak part & very uninteresting. Nearly 50 k run here from Compiegne. Refugees coming back slowly, but it is very sad, most of villages badly knocked about.
Peyman comes in a weeks time to see about our end & I hope we shall be demobilised by 1st Jan but nobody knows our fate. I shall be glad to finally get home now war is over & I sometimes feel I’ve been foolish to exchange a cosy flat in London for a calf pen out here in a deserted uninteresting village however. No mail for 2 days, very annoying!
I fear no chance of our being sent to Germany but nurses from Hospital tell us they are going to Mayen! All seems going well as regards German evacuation. We are in wilderness here, between advanced armies & those gone back.
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
France
November 20th 1918
My Dear Mother,
I got back here Monday evg. & found section in a more or less wrecked village 15k from St. Quentin, really flat country. Just here & most uninteresting. Doing hospital jobs round about. Got fairly decent quarters in farm houses, fires which is a great thing & I have installed a stove in my little room which was icy cold & I call this calf pen, as it only has ½ a door & one has to bend double when one goes in & out & I’ve already banged my head once …
This aft. noon I went for long walk with a fellow through a wood to see one of the emplacements of a Bertha that shelled Paris, rather interesting. Lovely aft. noon till 4, then damn fog came on. It is a bleak part & very uninteresting. Nearly 50 k run here from Compiegne. Refugees coming back slowly, but it is very sad, most of villages badly knocked about.
Peyman comes in a weeks time to see about our end & I hope we shall be demobilised by 1st Jan but nobody knows our fate. I shall be glad to finally get home now war is over & I sometimes feel I’ve been foolish to exchange a cosy flat in London for a calf pen out here in a deserted uninteresting village however. No mail for 2 days, very annoying!
I fear no chance of our being sent to Germany but nurses from Hospital tell us they are going to Mayen! All seems going well as regards German evacuation. We are in wilderness here, between advanced armies & those gone back.
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
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