Cecil Mills Collection - Wallet 3 - Part 6 of 17

26 ARMENTIÈRES. - La Rue de Dunkerque à la Grande Place. - LL.

45

CARTE POSTALE
CORRESPONDANCE  25/5/16  ADRESSE

Bally aeroplane dropped a bomb 
here a couple of days ago & killed a 
few Civilians. I Came round the 
Corner about 5 minutes afterwards. 
Usually am about 5 minutes late for 
things like that. Unlucky aren't I. 
Lovely weather & everything O.K.

45 OAS abroad

Mrs CB. Mills
c/. Dr. A Burne
Kinellan
Dalley St
Waverley
New South Wales
Australia

46 France
Friday 26.5.1916

Dear old Darling
Two dear old letters
No. 36 & 37 arrived last Tuesday afternoon
the day after my last letter was written.
Then on Wednesday the great big parcel packed 
by the Civil Service with all the eatables, then 
last night, 2 more parcels, the sox with the
Battn Colours & tobacco, & the Hanks, Tobacco 
& very useful paper. The crab was eaten for
supper on Wednesday night by 3 of us & it went
very OK I can tell you, as we only came in
from the fatigue party I mentioned in my last
that night & beat the transport in easily & had
nothing to eat at our Billets. The rest of the eatables
went into the Com Officers Mess& will be consumed
in due course. All the things are jolly useful I
can tell you.  The Battn socks are very nice, the 
only trouble is I dont want to wear my Puttees
when wearing them.  Have a good supply of sox 
now & am able to distribute some. Gave my O.C. 
two pairs this morning. He was quite on the 
rocks, but he is a whale on socks, not like your
husband who assured you before you consented
to marry him that he never made holes in his
socks. Oh he is a perfect model of a man ?????
Somehow or other I feel awfully fit today & would like 
to be in a big scrap, & have a "pop over" & go for the 
German trenches. At present am a good hours march 
from the nearest, & by the time I could get there my 
enthusiasm might have waned somewhat, specially if

[*2/ 46*]

I had to carry my pack.  Now to give you an
idea of what I've been doing since writing to you
last Monday night.  Had Tuesday off & intended
loafing & going for a Hot Bath. Neither came off. 
The two of us that went to the Bombing School, got
permission to visit a rather decent town, which
we could walk to in about 1 ¼ hours.  There was
not a great deal to see, as the place had been
shelled from time to time & the civil population
had melted somewhat.  We got a lovely lunch.
Sardines & potato salad.  Then roast boiled chicken,
champignons, plenty of nice bread & butter, & also
some very nice beer in tiny bottles.  The first
nice beer Ive tasted since leaving Australia
Had 2 bottles to myself, as did the other chap.
Of course I cannot tell you the name of the
town, Censorship regulations forbids mentioning
names of places.  We bought all sorts of things.
Among my purchases:- Rubber sponge, Electric
Torch, Air Pillows, Nail file & patent nail cutters.
(You would weep bitter tears to see the way I hack 
my nails about with them, but the file is a good one)
Hair Clippers as a present for my Ratman who is
a Barber by profession & some very risque
postcards of female women, one of which is
enclosed.  The girl in the shop assured us they
were practically sold out, but would have some
good ones in next Sunday.  These French people
are the limit in some things.  She seemed quite
a respectable girl, not one of those at all.

[*3/8]

Oh by the way I sent you a Post Card No 45. 
Hope you get it OK (Also sent another to one
of your relations I purchased it on my day off. When I got back about 5/30
had some tea then down to join my Coy who were
on fatigue close to the firing line.  Had a most
uncomfortable night sleeping on bare boards with
one blanket underneath, this in itself after my 
(pen has run out) life of luxury the last few days
was bad enough, but a dirty nosed bally 18 Ponnter
would persist in firing fair over the old Stable
we were sleeping in.  Used to wake us up every time
it fired. It was one of our own guns, just a little
bit at the back of us.  We cursed the whole Battery
& prayed for their immediate extinction by a German
Shell, but they were not exterminated.  We were
beginning to doubt the efficacy of prayer for the
time being but later in the day the the prayers of
the whole Coy were answered in that we were
all recalled to our B old Billets. We got strafed
a bit during the morning while we were working.
Two High Explosives came within about 20 yards,
they also sent a few Shraps over, but we got into our
trenches like rabbits into a burrow as soon as the
first shell was heard coming.  Some of the Hun 
High Explosive stuff is pretty rotten. There was
hardly any concussion from these two in particular
Got to go & mark up some Bombing returns now
Blast it, as I'm in such good mood for letter
writing tonight.  Could go on yarning to you for
hours & Ive not even started to answer your letters.

[*4/*]  Sunday Morn.

Ive cut out Church Parade this morning to
finish my letter to you, as there is a rumour
afloat that a mail goes to Australia very shortly.
Well as soon as we got settled down again in our
old Billets, I got a new job & had to organise the
Company Bombers, so have given up my own
Platoon for the time being, & am endeavouring to
teach to our men what I learnt at the Grenade
School I attended. Going to keep this first lot for 
a week & then take on another lot if we stay on 
here until every one in the Coy has gone through
the course. Most of the men are taking a great
interest in it & I'm quite satisfied with their
progress. Saturday half holiday,  took a party
to the Baths & had a beauty myself so am now
a very nice clean boy once more. Expect to get
all my togs back again very soon, probably, inside 
2 weeks. They are at Marseilles with the Battalion
Baggage. The Corporal in charge of our stuff 
had made the acquaintance of L Bond, & in
writing to one of his pals in my Platoon told him
to tell me he had met a relation of mine there.
Today is another glorious day & this afternoon Im
going along to the Bomb School again to try &
get a supply of Grenades to teach my chaps all
about them, or rather to teach them the little I
know myself.. In the Cable sent I put Many 
Happy Returns Third June. Splendid Love. Hope
you get it before the day. Now to have another read 
through the dear old letters before burning them.
We have to burn all our letters, as one cannot carry

[*5*]

them round in our pocket there is no place to
leave them without the chance of them being read
by some one or other. Hope you got some mail from
me on 3^rd  April & that it has been going regularly 
ever since to you. I hate to think you are not
getting letters regularly, but of course there was some
excuse that since we shifted out to the Sinai 
Desert , as Transport was certainly quite difficult 
there for a while until the number of  camels were
increased. Daresay you are still at Kempsey,
but I address everything to Kinellan, as I know
your Mother will forward everything promptly
so there would be no delay in any way. Wonder
what Crescent Head looks like. Suppose you could
tell me, & will tell me before long in your letters. 
I can tell you what year it was we met in Kempsey.
It was in Dec 1906, very nearly 10 years ago now
& after the picnic part of the show was over we
went to the Smalls & sat round in a ring & played
games. Ye Gods the games we used to play, & all 
the jolly time I wanted to have you all on my
own. Oh well, I used to occasionally get you 
to myself afterwards in those old Kempsey days.
I sent  a P.C. to Mrs Bland Holt a couple of weeks 
ago & will send one from time to time. Its funny
she did not hear from her Billy Boy. All our
men wrote thanking the people that sent these &
now there is quite a flourishing correspondence
going on. The people have written back, usually 
sending the chaps some papers or cigarettes & our
chaps write again. Some first class paper flirtations