sued to us and we rested here where there were
some very large and comfortable dugouts which our most amiable friend
Fritz had built for us. We enjoyed them and although we had lost quite
a few of our best pals we knew that we all had gone through that same
ordeal and those of us who were lucky enough to come out of the scrap
never gave a thought to what we had gone through. A good thing, for if
we did a few of us would be good patients for a lunatic asylum. We
stayed here for the night and the next morning we got as far as the
Brickfields near Albert where there were a lot of the old London Motor
Buses waiting to take us back to a little village clear of the shell
fire so that we could reorganize and get another go at Fritz. We were
all as happy as larks, singing "Are we downhearted," "The Canadians
took Courcelette, they can fight you just bet" and other trench songs.
Some of the boys had on Fritz helmets and others had Fritzs'
revolvers; we all had souvenirs of some description. We arrived at
this town after a couple of hours ride. There was our Pipe Band with
the Battalion Mascot, the goat, which we got in 1915. It is still with
the battalion and always leads the band. When we reached this village
the very first thing we had to do was to shave and clean up, for were
we not the best unit in France? We always thought so and we used
always to show an example to the others. That is "esprit de corp." We
had a pretty good time in this village. Some of the boys sold their
souvenirs as they said we were going back and could get lots more. Our
old Colonel was still with us but his hand was now bandaged up. I
forgot to tell you when he was coming through Albert the 22nd gave
three cheers for "Col. Hilliam." He turned around and said, "If there
is any credit give it to the boys, they deserve it." He quite forgot
that we looked upon him as something more than a man, the way he would
go around through a bombardment. Out here we had the usual parades and
reorganization, but we only had the old battalion to reorganize as we
got no reinforcements. However, we were still the "25th" and could
show the Germans what we could do. It soon got spread around that we
were going back to have another go at Fritz. So we got our guns fixed
up and the afternoon before we went in Col. Hilliam made an inspection
of the battalion. I had my Lewis Gun team formed up in rear of "C" Co.
When the C.O. came around I called them to attention and saluted. He