My Dear People,
Just a few lines to let you know I am quite well. We are all back well away from the line now & having a well-earned rest. We are in a small French village & things are very quiet here, except when the boys get hold of some “Vin Blanc” which is a cheap wine & carries boxing gloves & a very strong desire to break everything up, when a man gets too much of it. This of course causes a certain amount of noise & provides amusement for the onlookers; it is always very much in evidence on pay-night when we are near any place it can be bought at. I went into Abbeville on Friday, it is a fairly big place, but, is pretty quiet now. I tried my weight there & I hit the scales at 12 st & 2lb which is not too bad.
The first day we landed in this village the French people rushed out & gathered in their Apples & what few grapes they had growing here, as our reputation amongst fruit gardens is bad, (very bad)
They are breaking up a battalion in every brigade of the A.I.F. & in our Brigade they are breaking up 29th & sending them to us, what is left of us will form two Coys (C & D) of the 32nd & the 29th will form (A & B) Coys. It is causing a good deal of friction as a man naturally does not like to see his Batt broken up, but there are not nearly enough men about to keep the existing Batts up to anything like full strength, especially as we have been doing a lot of line work this year.
Well I will close now hoping you are all well.
I remain
Yours Tom.
