France 24

October 1916

Dear Mother & Father & Family,

This letter has to be kind of a family affair for several reasons. First that the paper is scarce, second – time is short and third I thought that on account of it would be better to write one decent letter than four or five little ones. Before I proceed further I must state that it is a good idea to put a piece of blank note letters to write a reply on. I am at present in perfect health and am contented as a soldier generally goes so there is no need to imagine me suffering all sorts of horrible privations. They only happen when the Germans are just over the hill, or when it is raining like the Devil.

At the time of writing we have had 2 or 3 heavy frosts as sort of a prelude to Winter but as we have two shirts and underpants and 2 blankets besides our ordinary clothing the frosts don’t worry us much. I have been about 6 months in France now and have therefore had time to see a fair amount. The French are not a sociable crowd so I can not say we have had much of an opportunity to learn their language although some of us are building on what they learnt at school and talk good enough to get the gist of a conversation. The only time when we can really practice talking French is when we drink their beer and the estimates of egg and chip shops. The roads in France on the whole are very good. They of necessity keep them in good repair. Some of the main highways are paved with blue metal cobbles for miles and miles and are jolly hard on the feet. The cobbles are about 9 inches square and are laid like bricks in a wall only flat of course. The main roads are always planted with trees such as Poplars and Yews and the rules and regulations are very strict concerning them add the planted forests. They have to plant a tree in place of every one that is felled here. Growing crops such as beet, cow parsnips, Swedes, carrots, turnips, beans and other vegetables are all protected not by fences or hedges and it save them a devil of a lot of wire and railings etc.

The peasants on the whole are very honest and only that a great more money grabbers especially when they discover that Australian’s get paid so highly. Our screw is like a small fortune to them and they are also very religious and have a big church in every village. No matter if there is only a cluster of houses there is always a church with a bell ringing like mad. They often have a big clock in the spire and to tell the villagers the time to go to mass I suppose. Cavalries and wayside shrines are everywhere along the main highway and at the entrance to a village etc. Huge crosses with a crucified Christ on it are stuck everywhere and these pious villager crosses himself when he passes it. This is the chief design for a headstone and also most of the graves in the cemetery have them. One form of piety is to place a wooden home made cross this and at the door of the shrines and we often pass shrines literally buried in crosses.

The railways of France are very numerous and criss cross the country in every direction but of course they have a tremendous military as well as civil trains on them so that it is rarely that we use them most of our short journeys are done per hoof and you can imagine us doing one of these 12 to 15 mile marches with a full pack up. We left one part of the front the other day and come back to where we were when I joined up. Part of the journey was done in a convoy of motor transports the ‘line’ extended a distance and a distance of from and news Ch for Smith Street to Summer Hill Railway station. So you can just imagine what it must have been like with a lot of fierce looking Australians in them singing and yelling out Bonjours ? Moselle etc.

The French soldiers as a whole and from what I have seen of them are a fine big helping lot of men and they take this war seriously. It is not often that they indulge in singing and such like hilarity like the British troops do apres le geurre they will do all that they say the best place I know of while out on billets this cool weather is a French or Belgium estaminet these drinking shops are very comfortable to us and they all have the peculiarly built French stoves on which they cook and at the same time give out a good heat for the room.

They often have a patent organ arrangement like they use in Sydney picture shows with a daughter of the “missus” to play it. The beer is as light at hop beer. You can drink gallons of it with out effect. The girls often sing songs and amuse the troops. I have listened to Tipperary and I’d like to live in love land etc. sung in Flemish which is like Dutch. One night some Belgians (old men) were giving their youths of whom there were 4, a send off in these estaminets. We stayed and drank with them until it was over. The youths were about 18 or 19 and as they began to get the beer in you would think that they were the one thing wanted to win the war by their talk (I presume I could not understand their lingo). I forgot to say they were being trained for the war.

I have heard a good deal of French but I have tried a few times they are not too bad on the whole. I have tasted champagne at 5 francs which is no good at all as it is too new. Also about 12 francs which is pretty good. Malaga wine is like port wine & syrup mixed and it is very heavy and sickly stuff as it is too sweet. Quinine is another wine but it is too bitter with quinine and it is more of a tonic than a wine. The best sort I have tried yet is Aporto Port which is real good. Just like Australian Royal Reserve at 7/6 a bottle. They have several other kinds dry and sweet & sour that I have tasted and don’t know the names of.

I could say a good deal more about various things but haven’t the time and I have been carrying this around for nearly a week so I must post it as soon as possible. The weather is beastly, windy and wet although not unbearable by any means. Aunt E & C send me socks now and then. I have plenty and can get plenty of these thinks for the asking. I am just going to a stunt which has been the toughest that the Australian’s have tackled yet so I will say au revoir with affectionate thoughts for you all.

Walter Elkington.