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[Page 3]
offensive. Passing through Albert we saw much damage caused by shell fire, a church steeple was still standing with a statue leaning head down at an angle of 45 deg. The boys soon had a name for it - irreligiously- .Australia had a famous woman swimmer who had won a gold medal at the 1912 Olympics called Fanny Durack.
That was the name the statue got and it was continued to be called that for the rest of the war. The statue eventually topple after the war.
We were halted at "Sausage Gully" so called because of the large number of balloons operating there directing our artillery. Our guns were assembled wheel to wheel and we were ordered to relieve the 1st Division unit which made the initial attack. They had cleared the enemy from Pozieres but left no trenches to take over. One of our units looking for some sort of trench stumbled into an enemy filled trench. The terrific shelling eased for a few hours and we were able to dig a line of sheltered trenches.
The enemy shelled intensively before dawn and this continued for many days. During that time we dug and dug to gain more protection. We had a line almost complete but the main road between Albert and Bapaume was wide and cobbled, built by Napoleon.To connect our trenches across this wide road was a problem. Hen worked from both sides removing the blue metal cubes 10 minutes at a time. Each man was often interrupted by enemy machine gun fire spraying the cobbled road. Eventually the connection was made after many casualties. We held the line for 14 days and during that time the enemy shelling hardly ceased.The decision was then made to send the remainder of us who were left over the bags to capture the Windmill trench which was occupied by the enemy.
On 22nd August 1916 we followed our own atlllery's creeping barrage slowly and gained our objective.
Leaving our trench at 9.00pm - zero hour - we climbed over the top, each man carrying his rifle in one hand and either a spade, a pick or a roll of barbed wire in the other. I had almost reached the enemy trench when I received a wound in the left an above the elbow. Hy left arm became useless. I dropped both my rifle and shovel pulled a Hills bomb from my tunic pocket and reached the trench. Luckily I had no occasion to use the bomb as the artillery had disposed of any opposition from the enemy. Usually, at night, to inform our people that we had gained our objective, a phosphorous bomb was thrown into the air to give off a fiery glare and white smoke. Whoever was responsible to do this on this occasslon allowed the bomb to fall back into the trench. This resulted in the fiery contents of the bomb falling like hall onto our clothing. I had great difficulty, only having the use of one hand, to brush the burning stuff from my clothing to prevent further injury. I was unable to help transfer the sandbag parapet to the other side of the trench. The Platoon officer seeing that I couldn't help told me to find my way back to the Regimental aid post. It was almost dawn when I reached there due to hostile shelling and was lucky to make it at all. After receiving first aid I was transferred to a four wheel springless wagon which took myself and others to the Becordel Chateau Divisional clearing station. Here I was given an anti tetanus injection. This treatment was not available on Gallipoli and many wounded soldiers lives would have been saved . Wounds there turned septic and gangrene set In. I believe that the volcanic nature of the soil caused this as the slightest scratch would turn septic in 12 hours or so.
I was taken to Rouen by Ford ambulance(the hood of the engine was about the size of a keroslne tin) driven by a lady driver.I was operated on the next morning at the Rouen Field Hospital. This field hospital consisted of two marquees in the field, one an operating theatre, the other a waiting room for patients waiting