Item 02: Arthur John Moore diary, 11 November 1916-11 January 1918 - Page 34

[Page 34]

the Infantry chaps returned to their Batt. & we had to carry right thro' to No.4 Post. The shells were flying pretty thick & we were jolly lucky that none of us got a "Blighty". Things kept moving after this & we were moving backwards & forwards, case after case until about 6 p.m. We got a dozen cases in all, a few were able to walk, luckily for us. When we returned this time we had a feed. To make matters worse the "Primus" went bung & we couldn't make any Tea which was just the thing we had all been looking forward to. After Tea we took the old "Primus" to pieces & got her going then we made some Tea, which went down well after waiting so long for it. We sat up till about 9.30, to see if any more wounded came in, then we rolled up in our Blankets & went to sleep. I turned in with Colley & we were soon asleep.

Wed. JAN. 31. About 3 this morning a chap came in from the front line very sick so we made room for him on the floor, which squeezed us together like sardines. Then we slept on again till 9.30, when we got up & had some Break. Cold Bacon & Bread. We gave the sick man some Beef Tea & carried him on to Needle Trench. Fritz put over a severe bombardment & a number of wounded arrived at our R.A.P. which kept us busy till about 4 p.m. Our relief should have arrived about 2, but they had to take cover on account of the heavy shelling, which made 'em late. Several times my wind was up & once a shell burst about 20 feet away from us. Gee! The narrowest squeak I ever had. The 4 of us dropped to the Ground like one man & we heaved a big sigh of relief when none of us were hit. It was about 5 miles to Bernafay & we were all jolly pleased to get back to Camp as we were tired out.