Their puttees were snugly reefed about their shanks and their khaki tunics buttoned up to their throats.
We talked with them.

They wanted to know if they had reached Germany yet, and when we told them that they were not out of France and had all of Belgium still to traverse, they groaned their dismay in chorus.
"We've 'ad a very 'ard time of it, sir," said a spokesman, who wore sergeant's stripes on his sleeves and who told us he came from Sheffield.

"Seventeen 'ours we were in the trench, under fire all the time, with water up to our middles and nothing to eat.

We were 'olding the center and when the Frenchies fell back they didn't give our chaps no warning, and pretty soon the Dutchmen they 'ad us flanked both sides and we 'ad to quit.

But we didn't quit until we'd lost all but one of our officers and a good 'alf of our men." "Where was this ?" one of us asked.
"Don't know, sir," he said.