Happy New Year

Hi Folks a Happy New Year to you all.

Well this week has been a quiet one except for us revelling in the Christmas spirit whilst out of the trenches.

When I last wrote to you we had just returned to billets in Le Bizet. We spent the next few days after this relaxing in the hospitality of the towns folk and the public amenities. We did a little marching and we also did some work in some of the evenings but on the whole we had some thorough rest and recreation.

The main places around here for recreation are the Estaminets. These are basically cafes that are of various sizes. Some accommodate a few people and others are much larger and accommodate many.

We sit around drinking French beer or vin blanc. We either chat or play cards, dominoes or cribbage. Some write letters to dear ones. Quite often we play for money or cigarettes. Yours truly is quite a good hand at cribbage and usually take the opponents for all they have.

We venture from one estaminet to another and each of us have our own favourite. Sometimes we get quite tipsy and have to help each other back to our billets. Under the circumstances I don't think anyone can blame us.

Our billets are rooms in the villagers houses and some are even in the estaminets. The villagers are quite accepting of us and good to us. Although Le Bizet is just out of rifle and machine gun fire distance it is well within shelling distance of the Hun, but the residents stay. I find this quite brave of them but also quite amazing, I would have left by now if I didn't have to be here.

I live in a French families house. Having lived here since coming to the front I am now treated almost like a son and brother to the family. Three of us from my platoon live in one room in this house. The owners make it as comfortable as possible for us and each time we march off to the trenches they wave us goodbye and  shout bon chance. When we return they are waiting for us and greet us with all the fervour of a family greeting a lost son.

Our hearts warm to our hosts and we are very respectful to them and grateful for everything they do. They ensure we have clean sheets and a warm bed to return to and they provide us with plenty of good food. It is all paid for of course but never the less we are very grateful.

During the evenings of the 29th and 30th some of us volunteered to do some trench construction work. The high command trenches had become full of water and we constructed some new ones. This passed with little trouble except for on the evening of the 30th two chaps got injured by a stray bullet that somehow found its way into our trench. Other than doing this work we had all the time to ourselves.

New Years eve was a mighty spectacle, we were revelling in the estaminet and waiting for the cheer to go up on the stroke of midnight when all of a sudden there was an enormous din and rattle of rifle and machine gun fire. The Hun had decided to celebrate in style by opening up with everything they had got. There were star lights and shells fired. This lasted for about a minute and then ended. They were just wildly shooting into the air to celebrate the passing of 1914 and no one was hurt.

We continued to celebrate in the estaminet until the early hours and then returned to our billet. We were going back to the trenches on the evening of the 1st.

As duty called we returned to the trenches on the evening of the 1st, our French families waved us off and we trudged back in silence.

We spent the next four days in the trenches doing the usual sentry posts, reconstruction work, bailing the water out and trying to live the best we could. It was a very quiet period, there were a few shells whizzing overhead destined for who knows where but practically no sniping or other firing. No one was injured or hurt. The war still hadn't returned in its awful destructiveness and I was mighty glad of that.

I am now back in billets writing to you chums. I've had a change of clothes and a quick cat lick and I'm off with my pals to the estaminet in a few minutes for a well earned beer. I leave you with a picture of shell fire and star bursts as a memento of New Years Eve.

Hoping to find you again in a weeks time,

Albert x