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[Page 54]
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PART 13.
On the principle that troubles never come along we were one night threatened with a new danger, and not inappropriately, the date was the 1st of April.
I was awakened at half past one and told that a water pipe had burst upstairs and was flooding the women's bedrooms. And so it proved.
We were able after literally wading through, to turn off the main tap and stop a further flow. But already beds had been saturated, and a readjustment of rooms had to be made.
That over and all settled down again about three o'clock, we could only have just got to sleep when there came an air-raid, and fighting sounded very heavy. It was dawn before we were released, and soon the report came that one of the huts, in which W.A.A.C.s had been sleeping was demolished; they fortunately had taken cover.
On Easter Sunday I had duty at the Pier, and sad results of the heavy fighting was apparent in the lines and lines of motor ambulances laden with the wounded, waiting their turn to put their suffering burdens on the hospital ships. One could not help admiring the wonderful organisation of the B.R.C. [British Red Cross] in the arrangements made, everything was done for their comfort and every detail carried out with utmost miraculous precision.
The first week in April a cable came telling of Cecil's safe arrival in Australia, and that, among the conflicting elements of active service, was very cheering news.
The work of the unit became increasingly heavy, owing to necessary evacuation up the line. Every day and night women were unexpectedly arriving, and beds had to be improvised. From them we had alarming accounts of the advance of the Germans. The town was packed with refugees, looking pitiable with their bundles of clothing, or bits of furniture carried on a hand-cart. Sometimes a soldier, and not infrequently an Australian, might