The “tommies” however, took jolly good care that I would not beat them again as on the very same afternoon, I was placed on a draft for Etaples and left at 4 pm. Next day, at 10 am, I arrived at Etaples after the usual trying experience of a night in a troop train, and reported to the 2nd Div. headquarters and was sent to the 20th Battalion company of the 5th Training Battalion. This was on November 14, and next day, men from hospital were required to report to the Medical Officer. I had no difficulty in obtaining three days light duty during which time I was mostly employed in picking up papers about the tent and mess huts. The rest of the men in camp not on light duty gr were required to march out to the Bull Ring for training, but the mere thought of such a thing gave me the creeps and I decided in my own mind that I would not do it.

When my three days light duty was up, I developed some trivial complaint, and with the aid of my hospital experience, I managed to get another three days light duty, which I spent in evading the orderly sergeant and the company sergeant major and otherwise did nothing at all except eat and sleep. At the end of the sixth day of “light duty” I managed to attach myself to the sergeant’s mess as an orderly, and consequently did myself well for the rest of my stay at the base as regards food and lodgings. After five days at the sergeant’s mess as an orderly, I unfortunately annoyed the Sergeant Major for some reason or other, so that after 11 days of ease at the base camp of Etaples, I found myself included in a draft for the firing line.