Major and I went to the cinema. It was
excellent, or we thought it so, after the months of train and nothing
else.

_Saturday, January 2nd, 12 noon._--Just loading up for Havre with many
of the same men we brought down from Bethune on Sunday; it seems as if
we might just as well have taken them straight down to Havre. They look
clean now, and have lost the trench look.

Have been asked to say how extra-excellent the Xmas cake was; we
finished it yesterday, ditto the Tiptree jam.

It is a week on Monday since we had any mails.

There is a Major of ours on the train, getting a lift to Havre, who is
specialist in pathology, and he has been investigating the bacillus of
malignant oedema and of spreading gangrene. They are hunting anaerobes
(Sir Almroth Wright at Boulogne and a big French Professor in Paris) for
a vaccine against this, which has been persistently fatal. This man knew
of two cases who were, as he puts it, "good cases for dying," and
therefore good cases for trying his theory on. Both got well, began to
recover within eight hours. And one of them was my re-enlisted
Warwickshire man with the arm amputated, who was got out by the wounded
officer and the Padre.

_January 3rd._--A sergeant we took down to Havre yesterday told me of
his battalion's very heavy losses. He said out of the 1400 of all ranks
he came out with, there are now only 5 sergeants, 1 officer, and 72 men
left. He said the young officers won't take cover--"they get too excited
and won't listen to people who've 'ad a little experience." One would
keep putting his head out of the trench because he hadn't seen a German.
"I kept tellin' of him," said the sergeant, "but of course he got 'it!"

VII.

On No.-- Ambulance Train (5)

WINTER ON THE TRAIN AND IN THE TRENCHES

_January 7, 1915, to February 6, 1915_

"The winter and the dark last long:
Grief grows and dawn delays:
Make we our sword-arm doubly strong,
And lift on high our gaze;
And stanch we deep the hearts that weep,
And touch our lips with praise."

--_Anon._

VII.

On No.-- Ambulance Train (5).

WINTER ON THE TRAIN AND IN THE TRENCHES.

_January 7, 1915, to February 6, 1915._

The Petit Vitesse siding--Uncomplainingness of Tommy--Painting the
train--A painful convoy--The "Yewlan's" watch--"Officer dressed in
bandages"--Sotteville--Versailles--The Palais Trianon--A walk at
Roue