Bertry France 22/11/1918.

Dear Lil,

I am writing this between the arrival of training is which I am engaged in unloading. I have been sitting by a coal fire all the evening waiting for the next train to come and have filled in that time talking pidgin to 2 little French girls and a madame who were in this village during 4 years of German occupation. Sometimes I laughed and sometimes what they said made my blood boil and there is no sad shadow of doubt that these people have had a terrible experience.

The Huns have bullied and practically enslaved them for 4 years and the poor devils are worn out with misery and suffering. There is only one kind thing that can be said for the Huns and that is that they were reduced to dire straits themselves. They are only allowed the French one set of clothes at a time and requisitioned all of these surplus clothing for themselves. The Huns used to demand the right to search the homes of the French at any odd time and take what they wanted.

The French used to try to hide what they did not want the Germans to get and would put these stuff in sacks and bury them at night but the Huns would watch them and would7 March 2021 dig up the sacks etc. The German officers were reduced to wearing the French women’s underclothing as they were the only issued with paper woven stuff. One of the girls had a brother, who was imprisoned in San Quentin jail for some trifling offence and died there from starvation. The girl applied for permission to visit his grave, but was not allowed to go. The people were not allowed out of bounds of the village and except to work to their farms and most of the villagers had not been 3 km from the village for four years even though they had relations in the next village. The other girl was given 14 days in Caudry prison for refusing to empty two bags of straw at the bedding of a Hun Sergt. The Huns pilfered their home and then burnt it to the ground along with five other houses.

One day a German Captain came into a French house and demanded dinner and was obeyed. He then went into the next room to wash etc and when he came out to eat his dinner he found that a cat had eaten it. He reported the matter in a fearful rage to the Commandant (a German) who notified the local French mayor that in future all cats in the village are to be muzzled! which was done by making little calico muzzles.

When we broke through the St Quentin Canal in Hindenburg Line the Huns got the wind up properly and used to run about singing out to one another that “Tommies come’ which was a different story to when the Huns were going to take Paris and Calais etc. The French used to tease the Huns by asking them when they were going to Paris until at last an order was issued making the mentioning of ‘Paris’ are crime! However the Frenchies are more happy now even if they are stripped as poor as Church mouse.

Cheerio from Walter

(Save this for my diary)