A LETTER FROM FRANCE – Thu 29 Jun 1916

Lance-Corporal E. K. Ely writes as follows from France, on April 7th, to his relatives of our experiences, Serapeum. Suez Canel.

We marched away from there at 4 p.m., on the 25th March, and we had a march of nearly two miles before we entrained at 7 p.m. We were in open trucks, and were travelling all night, arriving: at Alexandria at 5 o’clock next morning. It was a very cold ride down, and we not sorry to get out of the trucks. We went on board as soon as we had breakfast. Left Alexandria next morning (Monday. 27^th) at 10 o’clock, en route for Marseilles. We had a very fair trip over; the only things that troubled us was being inoculated again, and having to wear our lifebelts all the time, even at meal-times. We arrived at Marseilles about 4.30 on the 31st, left the boat couple of hours later, and boarded the train at 9 p.m. en route for here. There were eight of us in our compartment, a second class carriage, and no corridor. Well, when I tell you were in that compartment to eat, sleep and be merry, for 65 hours, each man with full equipment and blankets you can guess we were not too comfortable. However, it gave us a chance of seeing a good bit of France, and I can quite understand the French being proud of their country. I do not know what route we came, but we passed about ten miles to the east of Paris. The first night we curled up as best we could, thinking we would arrive at our journey’s end the next morning. However, we had a halt at 5 a.m. for hot tea, with rum in it. I can tell you it was very acceptable, as it was very cold travelling. We continued our journey after a half-hour for breakfast, and had a chance of seeing a bit of the country. In the south of France the country is very rugged but pretty and fertile. The most noticeable were the vineyards. You knew Franco if noted for her wines. Also coming through we saw very few men about, as most of them were at the war. We have not had much of a chance to see what the womenfolk are like, most of those we saw were dark haired, and had a good complexion real pretty a lot of them. Well, we duly arrived at the end of our train journey at 3 p.m.

Monday April 3rd. We then had a nine-mile march to where we are now camped. Having a full pack up, with blanket and ammunition, you can we were not sorry to arrive here. Well I do not know how much I can tell you. We are billeted, some in houses, some in barn, and others in rough wooden structures. We are in the later. It was very cold the first night or two. With only one blanket but now we have another, and we sleep warmer. The first night we were here there was a very heavy bombardment and we could not get to sleep for a good while. We are only about five miles behind the firing line, and can see the smoke from the bursting shells distinctly. We are not very far from the famous place called Ypres. The guns are continually going, but one soon gets used to the noise. We had to hand in our cameras as we are not allowed to use them here. I would have liked to have kept mine, as we have good opportunities of getting some fine snaps. I had a letter from England yesterday: also cigarettes: they were very acceptable, although we can obtain them at our hut door for 3d per Packet. We have not had any Australian mail for a month, but I expect it will be along in a day or two. The other Harcourt boys were to leave Suez the night after we did. Allan Williamson from Winter’s Flat, is here, in our company. We have a three hours route march every morning, and in the afternoon we have a couple of hours smartening up drill. It is pretty cold here after Egypt, but we will soon get used to it. Most of the houses here are of brick and have tiled roofs. The majority of the roofs are also thatched. I do not know what the idea is, as it cannot be to keep the houses cool. Beer, wine, and coffee can be obtained at almost any house for those who want it. We are getting fed pretty well, and have no complaints so far as regards to food.

The evening of arriving here we witnessed a duel with aeroplanes: it was almost dark, and they were five or six miles away, but we could count 16 engaged, and could see the flashes of bursting shells. We see aeroplane, flying about every day here, but very seldom any German ones. We are not allowed into the town yet, but I think we will be later on, then I will obtain some views of places of interest. Yesterday we passed a fine Catholic Church built on a big rock. They are very hard on Australians as regards leave. They do not seem to trust any of us owing to a few who play up a bit. I am just enclosing a few lines to try and give you an idea of what France is like from our view of it. First the soil is much the same class as we have in Australia. There are some fine rich flats in different parts of the country that we saw from the train coming up here; also there is red clay similar to ours. I did not see the orchards I expected. The largest was only about eight, acres, and that was mainly peaches, which were in full bloom. Pears and plums are fairly plentiful, but apple trees are scare. They prune here a bit differently to what we do. Where we leave the centre of the tree open, they leave their full here, and prune it like a bush; for the three leading shoots where we take off two and leave one for a leader, they prune the three the same length. Their trees are headed closer to the ground than ours. There are more vineyard, than orchard. They have small vines, and staked not trellised. There does not seem any need for irrigation as there are plenty of streams about. I noticed a small granite quarry coming through, and the granite seemed the same as ours. As for the timber, the basket willow seems to be the most plentiful: there are also a lot of hawthorn hedges, similar to those I saw in England. Along most of the roads are avenues of trees of the ash variety. Well, as to cultivation. They are now sowing the crops. I think it must be barley, as it seems out of season to be sowing oats in the spring. They are also planting potatoes. There are more women than men working in the fields here. It is a common sight, to see a girl of 18 or 20 driving a pair of horses in the harrows, planting potatoes, and spreading manure. Their harrows and ploughs are similar to ours, except some ploughs which have a shoe instead of a wheel. It seems funny to see them driving with one rein. It is a leather rein from the bridle to just behind the halmes then a single rope from there to the driver. They have some unique vehicles here, one popular one is a three wheeled one, the front wheel working on a table similar the front carriage of a wagon. The haystacks are built around a pole, the pole being used eventually to support the stack. I can give you very little news at present. I will write latter, as I see more of the country.