Sidney D. Light's WWI Diary, Postcards & Letters, 329th Battery Book Accounts

(for map of Liverpool to Birmingham click here)

(for map of Birmingham to Southampton click here)

Woke up this a.m. with our good ship steaming down the river toward Liverpool. Reached port at 9:00 a.m. and it is a great city. Landed at 11 a.m. and marched up one of the main streets amid cheers to the midland R R Station and had coffee and cookies served to us. Also were given King’s greeting which I sent home. Then we pulled out for no one knows where. In my compartment was Loetz., Zoltowski, Dreyfus, F.C. Williams, Rafferty & [I and] Kobal. English trains are nice to ride in. Comfortable cushions and wonderful roadbeds. Scenery too was wonderful. Pretty farms with large stone buildings. Land divided by stone fences. Crops are about the same as in U.S. except that there are no corn or beans. In the cities people are crowded into terraces as there are no single houses. They are built close to the streets and have no back yards.

We passed through Manchester Derby where we had cookie and sandwiches, Kingsbury, Birmingham, Cheltenham, Swindon, Andover and at 9:30 p.m. pulled into South Hampton. We unloaded, put on our packs and struck out through the dark streets. No lights are allowed in this part of England and searchlights are flashing through the sky all night long. They were expecting an air raid tonight.

We had an awful march to a camp way across the town and this was the most tiresome trip or hike I have had so far. Nearly had to drop out. Practically nothing to eat all day long made it worse. After about an hour we hit this camp and it sure is some place. We sleep on cement floors and eat nothing (This is the English ration). Took our mess kits and went to a mess hall at 12 o’clock midnight for a light lunch. One small piece of cheese, 1 small slice of bread and ½ cup tea, then went back to the barracks to sleep. Big day & a hard one.