In France at Last. A small fast vessel, the "Onward", took us over the Strait of Dover to Calais in about an hour. Upon arrival I was sent ahead with an English guide to locate our billets. We were quartered crowded into tents with sand bags about them just outside of Calais. Water and "eats' were scarce. Shortly after dark the anti-aircraft guns opened up. "Fritz" was coming in airplanes to greet us. The people of Toure[?] scurried for cellars and dugouts, but to us this was something new and we did not wish{miss }anything. We all got out of our tents and strained out necks to see the show. We saw the flashes of the guns and of bursting shells high in the air. The Germans did not unload their bombs hereabouts that night. Their objective[was ]probably English cities. Search lights [kept] sweeping the sky. This show was not so bad. Our next door neighbors were ^a large camp of Chinese laborers used by the British. It became evident that we were to [Page]be made an adjunct of the British army. Our men exchanged the American^Eddystone rifle for the British Enfield. After receiving my gas mask, I started out with a billeting detail to locate find our next location. We boarded a troop train with another company. This was the famous 40 and 8 (40 men ^{cars marked} or 8 horses). We passed through St. Omer[?] and detrained at Lumbres. After a 5 mile march we encamped for the night near a fine stream. Sergt. Jacobs of Phila. was with me on this trip. We decided that here is a chance to get a much needed bath, This was our first one in France. We slept under the open sky.

With the British In the morning we got a lift on a Lor lorry to {Denique} and from there to {La Callique.}Headquarters Co. and the Supply Co. were to be quartered here. Jacobs and I were the first American soldiers that the peasants of {La Callique}had seen. Women wept for joy to know that the Americans were coming. This place was near the front on which the British had recently been pushed back. The natives felt that we had come to save their homes. We met some English Tommies. They represented what was left of an English regiment after the ^recent German drive. No one gladder to see a force of fresh troops arriving than the Tommy. It was not[Page]hard to see that he was desperately "down in the mouth." Their army in this region had been practically annihilated during March and April before ^the terrific onslaught of the Germans in their "victory" drive. Although they had misgiving about the green troops from America, they felt that fine material was arriving to rebuild the English army. Our work in finding billets was soon completed. In fact the, our English friends had everything planned for us. The Supply Co. was ^{to be} quartered in big barn. The officers was were billeted in the houses nearby. Our outfits arrived at 10.30 P.M. left led by an Irish band of bag pipes and drums. The men were fed English style with hard bread, cheese and tea. Everybody was tired and soon asleep in their French billets. Several of us made out quarters in a shanty alongside the village school house, sleeping on the cement floor. This was improved the next day by a bundle of straw. At night we again heard the rumble of distant "thunder." On May 23rd we had a big "feed." We bought a chicken and had a French Madame fry it for us. There were five in the party. The chicken offered little resistance to our ^spirited attack. The feast was topped off with wine from the estaminet.