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[Page 8]
That march to Pozieres still lives in my memory. We had not gone far ere the church tower of Albert became visible. The falling Madonna with child clasped in her arms fixed itself in our imagination and today the word Albert still conjures up a picture of the Church with the falling statue suspended in mid- air overlooking the battle front. We passed through many batteries and marvelled at the amount of artillery behind us. We soon saw shells bursting far ahead. We had had enough experience to differentiate between H.E. and Shrap and took a delight in watching the feather-like burst of the shrapnel in the air.
About six o'clock we stopped on the hill overlooking Albert. Here w
e had tea and then my old platoon, 13-platoon, gathered round for one last singsong before going into the line. All the old favourites were sung, "Mary","Thora".
"I Want To Go Home " and "The Devil's Ball".
Soon the word came to move and once more we were on the track. Down the road, through Albert, under the Madonna and out on to the Camrai Road we marched, singing as we swung along, little recking of what lay before and wishful of impressing the Tommies with our martial ardour. Out of Albert we rested again. There were many troops hereabouts and they gave us some inkling of what to expect. Then a shell over and landed rather close. Again we went on but moving off the road towards "Gordon's Dump" we broke into single file. It was here, while halted to allow various parties to attain the requisite distance between each other, that a Tommy was heard to remark "Well, if you Anzacs can take and hold Pozieres we'll believe all we have heard about you". –"We'll both take and hold it" said one, but the others told him to let the "skite" alone. "Wait till we come out" said they. In another place we saw a few men together a roll being called and all the signs of a first roll after an attack. "That's all that's left of such and such a Brigade" said our officer.- "That sound healthy" was the only response he got. Now it was dark and we found it difficult crossing old trenches and going across country. But soon we reached "Gordon's Dump". The communication sap was not far from here.
Things were warming up now. Shells were flying fairly thickly and it looked odds on that we would have casualties before long. We arrived at the communications sap but did not enter it, we moved along the top in a parallel direction. Here an alarm of gas arose. Some put on helmets but the majority decided to "bide a wee". The alarm was false and once more we moved on. We decided to pass along the trench, and it was just as well, for the enemy put down a fairly heavy barrage. We had reached the corner where we were to turn to the left from C.Sap before we had our first casualty. We had just climbed out of the trench when "bang" a shell landed nearby; one man directly behind me was wounded, later he died. A few yards and we turned to the left. We spread out and were told this was our position and were ordered to dig in as fast as possible. We did. A half hour and we were down far enough for protection but we went further and soon averaged six feet. This was just completed when down came the enemy barrage. Shells of all calibres landed near by. Shrapnel burst overhead but the range was not just correct and so our casualties were few. We had about four during the night.
Next day there was a good deal of movement in and around the trench and the enemy observed it and from then till the 22nd we had to put up with shells all fired with more or less precision. Sixteen Platoon was nearly "non est" before the night of attack. Some were evacuated with gas poisoning, some with injuries from being buried by shells. Some were killed and altogether we began a sort of nightmare existence which lasted for the next week..
The life in this support trench was not all that could be desired. Fatigues were heavy, we had to go back to Gordon's Dump for water and rations, we had to carry water and ammunition, sandbags and other materials to the front line. At night the shelling was usually heavy