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- 259 *
Prance,
Sept. 14th, 1918.
Dear Mother and Pad, -
The long looked for opportunity has arrived. Have "bea.u- coup" paper- such as it is-, all day ahead of me and a. greenenvelone,eo you're in for a treat. Gave Sammy May all my writing material when I went down the line, and not having seen him since I came hack, was foroed to "borrow this pamper from, our shoemaker. While it hardly comes under the heading of "de luxe", nevertheless it will serve the purpose, which after all, is the main thing. How toget down to "business.
Y/hen I wrote you about a month lack from Ho. 13 Gon.Gamp,
I believe I promised that I’d give you a few particulars of our doings before and during the .Amiens stunt when I got held of a green envelope Y/hile it is in a way- to me- ancient history, no doubt it will prove interesting to you folks, so I’ll do my best to tear off a few yards. By consulting my diary I find that my last "manuscript" was sent from the "asylum", /aniens, at which haven of refuge that never to-be-forgotten nigh$ march of ours terminated, Will pick up the thread from there.
This Asylum is situated in relation to Amiens, somewhat as the place of the same name is to Yoree, only not quite so close..
It is far larger than the Ypres one though, and so far as my explorations divulged had not been touched either by shelling or bombing, in which respect it differs a great deal from the other. Just why J'ritz didn't slam hell out of it is a mystery to me, for such places are usually targets for his gum ere, Am sorry to state that though we were so close to Amiens, none of us were able to get into the city. Afraid of the troops looting the place, I suppose. So I was unable to inspect the famous cathedral at close quarters, but had to be content with the splendid view I had of it from my bedroom upstairs in the Asylum.
Our sojourn in this magnificent edifice was of very short duration. On the second day we received orders to pack up and be ready to move out that night. There was a wailing and a gnashing of teeth at the prospects of another night march, especially as it started raining around noon, kept it up steadily all afternoon and was going stronger than ever an hour before we were due to hit the pike.
At this stage of the proceedings an unexpected stroke of luck came my way. With the exception of two squads, mine oi£e of them-- all the stretcher bearers of "A" section had gone up the line in cars early in the afternoon. We were cursing our luck that we hadn’t been sent also, when along came our erstwhile friend and comrade, I/G Park,with a request that Red and his squad gather up their belongings and "allez toute suite" out to "996"- "Pat" Harris’s car. Oh joy* Oh bliss! Home was never like this.’ We "allezed" alright and extorted "Pat" to/ get us out of there "toute suite", before someone cancelled the "movement" order. With an "Ata boy, Pat, give her guts, step on her tail” we were out of the Asylum grounds, and breathing freely once more. "Well, whet's it all about, Jimmy?" I queried, "Damfino", he replied,
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