By contrast with the harried country from which we had just emerged this seemed a small Paradise of peace.

Over there in Belgium all the conditions of life had been disorganized and undone, where they had not been wrecked outright.

Over here in Germany the calm was entirely unruffled.
It shamed us to come as we were into such surroundings.

For our car was littered with sausage skins and bread crusts, and filth less pleasant to look at and stenches of many sorts abounded.

Indeed I shall go further and say that it stank most fearsomely.