Letters from William Rawson Leach to his family, 1918 - Part 16

3

I have written my last

three or four letters home

& now that certain censorship

regulations are lifted I can

give you the name of the

place.  Brancourt is

the place & if you look it

up on the map you will

find it alright, other villages

within a couple of kilometres

are Bohain, Fresnoy Le Grande

Premont, Montbrehain,

Ramicourt & Weincourt.

We are getting plenty of 

polishing up now & every

thing is "Kiwi".  We will all

be glad when we get rid of 

our Horses Guns & all

the paraphernalia & garbage

we have to lug about

Havent any idea what our

 

4

next move will be.  We are

all wondering where we

will be for Xmas. The

French civilians are gradually 

coming back to their homes

(or at least what remains

of them) & you see the old

Froggies retiling their 

roofs & patching up brickwork

which has been knocked

rotten by shellfire.  In

our billet we have an old

French madam camped

in the same room as

we are & we put up a 

tarpaulin & screened off

part of the room.  She is an

old character & washes our

dishes for us also our clothes 

We feen her & pay her for the

washing.  We have adopted 

her as a sort of mother.

5

It is over a month since

I got my last letter from

home so am expecting  letters

any day now.  Tell mother

I will write her in a few

days.  I hope you got my

cable at home letting you

know that I was safe &

well.  I sent it on the day

of the armistice was signed.

Now Marjory I will have 

to close so good bye

with love to all at home

& self.

 

Your aff Brother

Rawson

 

 

France

Dec 10th 18

Dear Mother

I received 

your welcome letter

dated Sept 30th a few

nights ago & I think

that there is still another

to come in between as

the date of the previous

letter was Sept 15th.

We are still in Brancourt

& there is nothing of special

interest from to report.

We got a slight outline

of the demobilisation

scheme & it looks as though

it will be some time

before we all get back

to Australia.  They have

2

shipping space available

for 11,000 men before the

end of this year but the

first men to go back are

C class & they consist of

sick & invalided & men

unfit for further service.

Then they intend sending

them back on their length

of service.  Those who desire

to work while waiting in

England will be given

the opportunity to do so &

I consider it will be a 

much better idea then

loafing about in camps

I think I will try & get

a job with some of the

English machinery

firms while I am waiting

for my boat) & it will

be of great benefit to

me for when I return

3

to Australia & one will have

a better opportunity of seeing

a good deal more of 

England.  It appears that

they dont want to land

too many Australians back

at once & flood the labour

market & there also seems

to be a great shortage

of raw materials for

manufacturing purposes

in Australia.  General

demobilisation will not

take place commence

till the peace prelimimery

have been signed

which will be somewhere

early in next February.

I was sorry to hear that

Elsie had been ill

but no doubt the change

& a rest would do her

4

good.  We havent got

much further to go

to Xmas now & they are

making preparations

for our Xmas dinner &

if it is as good as the

last one we are assured

of a good feed.

Dec 16-18th

I am finishing this letter

a few days later as you

will see by the above

address date.  We have

been on the road the

 last three days & have

travelled about 80 kilos

we are at a place called

Hautmont [?] Kilometres

from Maubege & it is

quite a big place or has

5

been in peace times.

There are numerous factories

& manufacturing places

of all descriptions here

but most of them are

out of action Fritz having

removed all the

machinery.  We are

very comfortably billetted

but it is very hard to 

buy any thing in the 

eatable line.  So we are

relying solely on  out

military rations.  The 

night before we left

Brancourt I got two

of my Xmas parcels one

from Sallie & the other

from Alice & the cakes

were just lovely.

6

I will write you a fuller

description of this place

latter on but I want to

get this letter away as

the mail has been

closed the last five

or six days.  Now mother

I will close with love

to all at home & self

Your aff son

Rawson

 

 

France

Dec 25th  18

Dear Mother & Father

I received

you so welcome letters

last week dated Oct 7th

13th & 15th & was glad to

hear that you had

got my cable on the

11th it would put your

minds at east for

a couple of weeks & I

hope that you got the

one Annie Walmsley sent

for me a few days after

the armistice was signed.

I wrote Alice a few

days ago so thought

I would keep your letter

for a day or two &

let you know how

we fared for Xmas.