Diary Entry - 14th February, 1917

Bee:  Had a beautiful sleep last night. The train was timed to start at ten a.m and I got to the station about nine forty five a.m. The place was packed with new troops coming out and quite a crowd of special trains moved out before we got going and they were a very merry crowd. But I am afraid it will wear off. They are the second line Territorials who have been in England two years. We finally started off at eleven thirty a.m. We plodded along until Abbeville at a fair pace, reaching there at two thirty p.m. It was fairly cold but managed to get into a carriage which had all its windows complete. From Abbeville on we simply crawled. I missed Candas [?] and finished up at Doullens at seven p.m. There must have been a lot of railway smashes along the line as there was no end of wreckage at different parts. I found a fairly decent hotel and picked up another fellow who I had never seen in my life before and we got a room together. I slept on the floor and was quite comfortable. The Hun had put four rounds of big stuff very close to Doullens that afternoon and made people talk a bit.