Armistice Day

The Germans used gas widely throughout the battle, where Alfred in this tale was wounded. During the war up to 12% of casualties among Australian soldiers resulted from gas attacks. The anti-war poem Dulce et Decorum est by British soldier Wilfed Owen partly inspired my story Armistice Day, describing a bombardment of gas-shells and the "...ecstasy of fumbling..." by soldiers to fit helmets and I presume respirators, where poem's narrator sees a man caught in the green gas cloud and feels helpless as the man is "...guttering, choking, drowning."

Wounded survivors were sent to convalescent hospitals in Britain, often set up in manor houses, then either returned to operational units or sent back to Australia for further treatment and discharge from the military. I am unsure if soldiers were billeted with civilians while being treated, so I've taken a fair amount of artistic licence here and not based it on historical accounts. However, I have read accounts of soldiers in The First World War billeting with French families when away from the front, often entire units being put up in barns, and I've also read accounts of individual soldiers billeting with families in Australia during the Second World War. Thus Alfred's stay with Carmel is not beyond possibility.

As for Chloé, the oil painting hanging on the wall of Melbourne's Young and Jackson Hotel, she's real. Painted by French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre, she has graced the pub since 1908 where she has enchanted several generations of servicemen who have written to her from the battlefields of WW1, WW2, Korea and Vietnam.

Alfred has a one-track mind, getting home to Queensland to find his mate Will's wife and child, and thus, his story will continue in a stand-alone sequel I hope to publish soon, titled Prussian Blue.