1919 Letter 2
Charler0i – Feb. 7, [1919]
Dear Mother – I wrote you that we were on our way to Germany. Well my dear, we are still on the way. In miles the distance is comparatively short but each engine we got could only take us so far and no further, and now we are at Charleroi at a British C.C.S. waiting for another train to take us on. Marchienne is a small place 3 miles form here where we arrived some time the night before last and where we sat till 3.30 this pm when we were told to get off. First we went to a CCS where they couldn’t take us in and later we came here. The Sisters are billetted in a Judge’s house until lately occupied by the Boch. They have been wonderful to us and we are delighted to be free to stretch our legs again. We are sleeping on our camp beds in the billiard room but it is steam heated and to our minds palatial after stretchers and blankets that have been on active service since Mons –
Well, Mother, I mustn’t give you the impression that it has been a dull trip – far from it. The second day out after we left St. Omer, the town began to show signs of the last bombardment, [Hazelranch] and all along was badly shelled while Bailleul was nothing but a heap of ruins. When I was there, that time in 1915 it was scarcely damaged at all but now not a house is standing. It was truly a devastated place, and beyond for miles stretched country ripped to pieces, full of shell holes and covered with wire and trenches. As I looked out I wondered if Eric had been just there and wished we had had some one with us to tell us where all the trenches were that have been in our thoughts for so long.
It was wonderful to me to see it all and I hope to be able to go through all the front before I leave France. After we left Armentieres the snow was falling so thickly that we had to stop, and it was strange to be stranded out there for the night in what for so long must have been the noisiest part of Europe not a sound was to be heard except the snow beating on the windows, and just outside the window was a trench – Boch I should judge from the direction it faced - we were sorry it was getting dark, but it gave one an idea of what the boys faced for so long, that desolate no man’s land with night coming on. Just then the [ ] of the train came in to ask if we’d like a concert, so a concert we had, a piano and 4 artists, and very good it was, quite unique too, in location and character but interesting and amusing as all the army concerts are.
Charleroi is a large city, in the [coal] area – we have talked to various people here and they all are full of the terrible treatment of the British prisoners here. One child was shot for giving them bread and there are the usual stories of brutality. The town itself has not suffered at all and consists of some very fine streets, lovely villas and the usual large schools, hospitals, etc. It looks rather more prosperous than the average French town in the north. The houses are all larger and the best are steam heated. Prices are a rather interesting study, soap is 2 francs for a small piece of Sunlight, eggs 1 fr. little acid drops 25 cents each, boots 300 fr. The Sister on the train said prices were really lower in Germany than here. It seems the Boch gave the price asked here. The British Sisters here say the people regard them with suspicion and called them Boch as the German Sisters wore gray too and apparently were pretty lively. There are plenty of shows here – the Sisters wanted us to go to one to-night but we are too tired. Tomorrow night we hope to go to a Pantomime given by the 42nd Div.
I am nearly all in, after coming from one side of France to the other practically, with little or no sleep, but I am so glad to be going up to Germany that nothing matters. I’ll write again to-morrow but at present I have some other letters to write. I wish you could see all this too but I don’t think you’d like travelling under these conditions.
Heaps of love – (Same address c/o Matron au chief –
Helen.