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[Page 83]
Next day we detrained at Caestre a village to the south of Ypres in Belgium on Saturday the 6th of October. On leaving the train the party set out to find the Battalion but luckily did not have far to march to join our units details who were camped in tents. When we had been allotted to tents & settled down I learned that the battalion was up in the line at Passchendale experiencing some very trying conditions in the big offensive which was then in full swing. It started to rain about dusk but that did not stop several of us from going into Caestre where we able to buy a good meal then had a look round the village for a while before returning to camp. Next morning after breakfast orders were issued for all members of our battalion in the camp to pack up their gear ready to move off. Just prior to moving the rain started to fall very heavily the weather being bitterly cold but however this did not make any difference for we were soon on the road & marched to Caestre railway station. The wait at the station lasted about eight hours which was most uncomfortable for it rained the whole time with occasional snow falls & as there was no shelter available the troops had to walk about in the wet to keep warm. About dusk a train pulled into the station our party being ordered aboard & after a short ride we left the train on the western outskirts of Ypres then set out on the march. After ploughing our way across country through mud & shell holes for about an our in the dark the officer in charge discovered he had lost the way so ordered the party to about turn then made our way back to the railway. Eventually we found a man who guide us to the battalion transport lines where we were packed into tents for the night. Next morning I was detailed off with a party to go to an engineers dump to load the Battalion transport limbers with duck boards for the forward area. When the loading was completed I went with a limber to Anzac Ridge in rear of Passchendale to unloaded the duck boards. It was a most unpleasant trip for the traffic on the roads was congested the way lying through Ypres then along the Menin road for about a mile where we branched off onto a cordroi road which was made of sleepers to enable the vehicular traffic to cross the mud & shell torn country. This road was only wide enough to take one vehicle at a time it being a system of one way traffic for the return journey was via another cordroi road. The enemy had the range of these roads, for there were several of them, to a nicety being able to place a shell on it at any point he wished. The progress along this road was very slow but we eventually arrived at the top of the ridge where the duck boards were unloaded on the side of the road then set out for home. Just after the second limber started on the return journey the enemy opened out with his artillery, shelling the road, nearly every shell hitting it or just missing by inches. I was in the third limber & after getting a move on found things were very warm for the shells were falling near by & on one occasion a shell hit the centre of the road about twenty yards in front, frightening the two horses into a full stretch gallop. The horses jumped this shell hole in the road in their stride but the limber went into it which made things unpleasant for me for the hole was about four feet in diameter & the same in depth but I managed to stay in the limber receiving a severe shaking. It was not long before the driver regained control of the horses then took our place in the long columns of traffic on the Menin road back through Ypres. On returning to the transport lines we had to pack up all