"Then I came back to camp and paraded for a box-respirator! We then went
through 'tear gas.' Then dinner. I sat at the Commandant's table. He was
talking about a great concentration up North--guns and supplies and men
swarming there recently....
"After dinner I went to bed. Thus ended Whitsun Day, 1917.
"I got up at 7.15 this morning. Breakfast. Then down to the 'bull ring'
in full marching order. Gas all day. Fortunately we were under nice
shady trees most of the time. We had sandwiches down there between 12
and 1, and got back at 4.30, feeling very hot after the march. Then
tea....
"Hamer, Bridgestock, and Allin have gone up the line this morning. I am
posted to the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers (the battalion Norman Kemp was
in!). I shall not be going up the line for a few days, but by the time
your reply to this reaches me I shall be there...."
My diary of that same day, May 28, records: "To Paris Plage in the
evening." And my letter written home the following day proceeds as
follows:
"After writing home yesterday I walked down town, and took a car to the
seaside place opposite. The country through which the car went was
pretty, and the seaside place quite passable; all right in peace-time I
should think. Unfortunately the last car back leaves at 8.
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