There was one interesting sight I saw as the column was on the march,
and that was a duel in the air between French and German aeroplanes. It
was wonderful to see the Frenchman manœuvre to get the upper position
of the German, and after about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour the
Frenchman got on top and blazed away with a revolver on the German. He
injured him so much as to cause him to descend, and when found he was
dead. The British buried the airman and burnt the aeroplane: _A Private
of the 1st Royal Kent Regiment_.
“That Tired Feeling”
We are now getting into our stride and beginning to get a little of our
own back out of the Germans. They don’t like it at all now that we are
nearer to them in numbers, and their men all look like so many “Weary
Willies,” they are so tired. You might say they had got “that tired
feeling” bad, and so they have. Some of them just drop into our arms
when we call on them to surrender, as though it were the thing they’d
been waiting for all their lives: _Lance-Corporal T. Williams_.
Lucky Fellow!
It was a pitiful sight to see the people fleeing from their homes
carrying all they could save. Our soldiers are very kind to them, and
give them whatever they can spare--and sometimes more than that. I saw
one young woman trying to reach some fruit from a tree which was a
good way out of her reach, and, not thinking, I went over and gave her
some pears which I had given me. She ate them hurriedly, but before
doing so gave me a kiss on both cheeks, which was rather enjoyed by the
rest of the troops standing by: _Driver J. Brennan, Army Service Corps_.
So Glad!
Oh, dear! I am pleased all my good women live in England. Often I see
cottage homes a-smoke and in flames. Villages, too! Dogs forlorn,
cats despondent on doorsteps. And yesterday I saw three little dots
walking along the muddy road with a tiny wheelbarrow. We were, when we
passed them, going under cover from a severe shell fire, whilst they
were going in the direction whence we were coming. At present we are
billeted in the buildings about a huge water-mill. The wooded hills are
all around, and the harvests seem all gathered in about here. It is not
so elsewhere: _A Reservist of the Beds Regiment_.