LETTERS FROM SLING CAMP

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 27 September 1917, Page 2

LETTERS FROM SLING CAMP

NEWS OF THE 25th.

PVTE. V. MCJ.EOD, writing to his parents at Helensville, says : —■ Well, we arrived safely after a trip of 12 weeks. We had a good trip as coinspared with, previous Reinforcements, haying had -ten.,, days; leave in Sydney, two in Freemantle*' four in Durban, and five in Capetown, so you see we had a good look round. We called at Freetown in Sierra Leone for two days, but we could not get ashore there. Well, we have arrived in England, and are now in hard^ training- at. the famous .Sling Camp, and my word, it is training; they keep us going hard from six in the morning till about*s.3o'at night. They will make <U8 fit for France -in. 'three weeks. One consolation ia that the food here is better than ever we had before, and I saw a letter from a boy at the Front who said it was better still over there. Of course there is no waste here, and they can feed 1000 men here on the same rations as are issued to 500,ir3J0 in New Zealand, and feed them about 50 per cent better. .... We had a five-hour trip on a slow train from Plymouth to this camp, and. had a good opportunity of seeing rural .England at its best, everything beautifully green, and it seems hard to believe thai in a few months it will be covered with snow and looking quite desolate. When we arrived here the weather was rery hot and we lost any amount of sweat on parade, dressed in full uniform with full packs. Then after a few days the weather changed, and now we are getting weather like winter in New Zealand, with cold winds and drizzly rain. We will have finished our training in another ten days, and are looking forward to the four days' leave that they give us to go and have a look at London, and then we go over to France. J Before leaving here we go through I bayonet fighting, gas test, and bombthrowing, etc. Now-a-days every soldier that goes across has to be a specialist in every department.

The following are some extracts from another interesting letter written by. a member of the same Reinforcement:—

July 27th—We have arrived safely at Sling Camp. I rather enjoyed the last week at sea, as things wire a',bit exciting. After calling at Durban'and Capetown, we put into Freetown for coal and water, but never went ashore as it is a fever-stricken place. It was after leaving there-that things, started to get, exciting. We started, zigzagging on account of submarines, and the last "week out we had to be out on deck with lifebelts on at dawn, as that is the most likely time to get an attack. Four were sighted in two hours the last day out. When two days out from port half-a--dozen destroyers came out and took charge of us, and our cruiser went off. on her own. My word, you should see those destroyers travel, especially when the subs, were sighted. However, all's well that ends well, and .we arrived safely (after a trip of exactly twelve weeks) at Plymouth. We arrived at camp about 4.30 in the afternoon, and had to march about a mile through the camps to our huts. The camp here does not cover acres of ground—it takes-in square miles that is, including the" Tommies and Australians. In New Zealand w.e had a great holiday, but here we have to spring to it. But we can't grumble, as it is only to be expected now, as we have a lot to go through in three weeks. The tucker here is decent, far better than anything hitherto. .... The country is alive with-aeroplanes, and, it is a common sight to see a dozen flying over the camp in the evening.