Thursday 24th February 1916: A soldier of the Bedfordshire
Yeomanry, some way north of the Somme near Loos, tells us about the weather
mentioned in passing by the adjutant of the 2nd Battalion yesterday which they
seem to have got today: “Things are pretty rotten round here just now. Plenty
of snow and frost, and, after a thaw, mud. If there is any other place on this
planet where mud is worse than France – well, I don’t want to go. As I am
writing this, it is snowing as I’ve never seen it snow before, big lumps and
thick. Yesterday it rained nearly all day and the ground was in a pretty state.
Now there is six inches of snow and every likelihood of there being six feet,
to judge by appearances. Things are pretty lively round here just now, plenty
of small scraps and artillery duels etc. We are daily expecting something.
Children love
the snow because they can build snowmen and have snowball fights. Women love
the snow because it looks pretty. We doubt any man returning from the Western
Front after this war will be able to contemplate it without some pretty choice
language.
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