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[Page 71]
as when we got there the guide who met us simply asked us are you Australians we said yes he never asked us what Battalion we belonged to & the consequence was that we were put into trenches that should have been taken by the 20th Batt; we had only been there two hours & had been working hard to cover up the chalk with black soil to hide the trenches a bit when the 20th Batt came along & told us we were in their possy. So we had to get out & we were led back again & came to some more trenches occupied by some English troops who had only been there two days & we had to relieve them
they had dug a trench behind a long row of Turnips that were in a heap, well a shell hitting this would not be any good as there was no resistance in turnips buried so while we were there I had to take out a man & get in touch with the Platoon on our right no 1 Platoon was in trenches on its own so we had to find out where they were & keep in touch through the night
I took one chap & we found them alright & explained where we were of no 2 Platoon & when I came back I got orders to put several men on Listening Post in a sunken road just in front & I had no sooner got back when a shell came & wounded my only corporal.
I forgot to mention that at Messines I lost a Sgt who got shot through the Hip. So the corporal got sent away wounded in the back & legs they continued to shell us for some time, and as we were well down to it taking shelter from the splinters