Belgium
November 17, 1918

Dear Lilian:

We are on the move and as you see by the heading we are out of France. I don't know the name of the village we are in but it is only a few miles from Mons. My address will be the same as before.

I received Aunt Bessies letter this morning and will write her in a day or two. I wrote her before we started to move.

We are in country now that hasn't been smashed up by the war and it looks pretty good to see villages without half the houses in heaps, and fields without any shell holes. The germans had to leave here too suddenly to do their usual work of breaking up housekeeping. They probably thought it was all up with them anyway. They found it out for sure soon afterwards.

We are on our way to Germany now to occupy the country till everything is straightened out and then I hope our next move will be toward home. Wish we could make it this year.

I wasnt in the last scrap with the battalion and perhaps I was lucky to be out. It was while I was in hospital. When I went out we were fighting on the outskirts of Valenciennes and a few days later they took the city.

I guess I could write for a week now if I tried but Im leaving most of it for the questions you have been saving up for two years.

Lovingly,

Reg.