Читать книгу The War History of the 1st/ 4th Battalion, 1914-1918. The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment онлайн

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Sunday was fine and hot, and all denominations had Church Parades. On Monday the Ninth Division marched through—what a fine lot they looked, and how we envied them “their cookers.” Why hadn’t we got cookers? And the old galling comparisons between the treatment of the Territorial Force and Kitchener’s Army were rubbed in once more. It is all dead now, but we had something to grouse at. On Tuesday, the 18th, we paraded at 8 p.m. for a night march, through VIEUX BERQUIN and NEUF BERQUIN to LA GORGUE, a suburb of ESTAIRES, where we arrived about 4 a.m. Not for months afterwards did most of us learn that we, the 51st Division, had been moved up by General French to be in reserve for the Second Battle of LA BASSEE.

The town was full of troops. Our men were billeted in breweries and factories; B and A Companies were in a shell-riddled Girls’ School; the Officers had difficulty in finding even a floor to sleep on, but at last most of them gravitated to one estaminet, where they fed on what they could get, and slept. An unforgettable incident rises to the mind. Lieutenant——, having disposed himself for slumber on three chairs and fallen asleep, tried to turn over and so rolled off—in one piece—on to the floor, where he lay immovable, only remarking, in injured tones: “I’m fed up with this —— War!”