Goodbye to all That by Robert Graves — Read

HERE are extracts from letters that I wrote at this time. I have restored the names of places, which we were forbidden to mention:

May 21st, 1915. Back in billets again at a coal-mining village called La Bourse. It is not more than three miles and a half from the front line, but the miners are still working. As we came out of the trenches the Germans were shelling the wood by Cambrin village, searching for one of our batteries. I don't think they got it, but it was fun to see the poplar-trees being lopped down like tulips when the whizz-bangs hit them square. As we marched down the pavé road from Cambrin, the men straggled along out of step and out of fours. Their feet were sore from having had their boots on for a week - they only have one spare pair of socks issued to them. I enclose a list of their minimum load, which weighs about sixty pounds. A lot of extras get put on top of this - rations, pick or shovel, periscope, and their own souvenirs to take home on leave: