France

September 11^th 1916

Monday

My dear Harry,

Thank you for your letter of the third and the previous one.  I am glad to hear you are settled in your new abode.  The furniture was rather unfortunate and reminded me of a man in the office who sent in a huge claim for damaged furniture & was allowed more than the removal fee.  French trains are fearfully slow and not at all consistent.  I think they go at the rate of fifteen miles an hour.  We left the “place near the big town” on the sixth & arrived here the following day – or rather a couple of miles away.  We had a rather stiff march, a few hours train journey & then another march.  I have enquired of all Bernard’s corps if his Battery is here and they say no so evidently he has moved.  You must let me know where he is now.  One evening at a café in the big town I was very amused at the French way of playing draughts.  We saw a game of cards which it was impossible to follow but which seemed to provoke plenty of amusement.  The picture cards have names of history people on them and there is no ace.  It is called “one”.  Draughts is very peculiar.  There are a hundred squares instead of sixty-four.  A piece can take forward or backward and a King can hop over a square, a man and then another square.  This part of the front is just what one would imagine it to be.  It is very busy indeed and seems like a bee-hive for miles.  It is very difficult from the old place.  I am reading “The First Hundred Thousand” by Ian Hay and if you have a chance do so as well as it almost relates our experiences.  There are one or two Canteens & a Y.M.C.A. hut not far off but they take some getting at.  To get inside the latter is a fearful job.  There is always a very long queue outside & we do not consider it worthwhile waiting.  If the army were suddenly taken away the country would be very barren for miles and miles.  There is a fine place to go swimming about a mile away.  It is just like a very long swimming bath, is about ten feet deep & has places to dive off on three sides.  We went yesterday and hope to go again today.  Our dwelling place now for these few days is built of ammunition boxes and a huge canvas sheet.  The boxes constitute the walls and the sheet is the roof.  It has been fine while we’ve been here thank goodness except for one fierce shower.  That shower however has taught us to appreciate fine weather in such abodes.  A big pole is in the middle to poke up the sheet so as to make the exterior appear more like a roof.  The transport has been playing all sorts of tricks lately and we are all receiving parcels & letters late & having several at a time.  Dickson had a parcel containing a cold (of course) chicken & as the parcel had taken ten days to come we decided to sneak off & open it far from the madding crowd in case it should hum.  We opened it & found it touched only in a couple of spots.  We eat a little leg, wing & breast & threw the rest in the incinerator.  The cakes &c were a little stale but quite all right otherwise.  One chap had a parcel once, the chicken went off very decidedly & the whole parcel was no good.  Three of our fellows went to hospital with sundry ailments & they seem to have had a flood of letters and parcels sent here.  I suppose it is always the way.  The guns are very active here & there is every indication of our having an opportunity of doing big things.  I am very well & feel very optimistic about the war soon being over.

Give my love to Ethel.  I am looking forward to long letters from you both next Wednesday – which is tomorrow of course.  Well I must now close, remaining,

            Yours as ever

                        Alan.

On Active Service envelope addressed to Harry R King, Esq., Glen Hilda, Park Avenue, Worcester.  Ans^d 17/9/16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE 124 13 SP 16.  Hexagonal Passed Field Censor 3274 cachet.  Signed GM Bevan