“…the troops are rioting and raising hell…”

Ham-Sur-Sambre, Belgium, March 20, 1919

Mr. W.E. Dobbs,

Dear Folks,

…What do you think of our kicking our heels around this country yet? If any person had made a statement that we would still be in this country the last of March it would have cost him his life. But here we are and God knows when we’ll see Canada…

I suppose there’s no use in grousing all this time, but it makes you so cussed mad to see three conscripts and bomb proofers in England strolling home to pick the plums that they’ve already been eating throughout the whole war and the poor boobs who have done the work can take what’s left. Then they wonder why the troops are rioting and raising hell generally.

We are still billeted in the little town from which I wrote you last. Haven’t had much of anything to do but grouse and chafe at the delay.

Their system of demobilizing the troops in France and Belgium has been a standing joke here for months and has been the cause of more cursing than the whole war.

As you know the third division…was…first to go. Why? God only knows. No one here can understand it. The first division follows them and if the time ever comes, we follow the first division.

Yours as ever, Garn

Selection from the letter collection of Sergeant Dobbs, to his sister Millie and his brother Walter
CWM 20050153-001
George Metcalf Archival Collection
© Canadian War Museum