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also searchlights from the Battleships just below us playing all round the firing lines, made a pretty spectable. Then came the crack of the rifles and Machine Guns it was fair "dinckum" sometimes Johnnie Turk used to reply, thinking there was going to be something doing, but he soon jerries to it after the first couple, This sort of thing went on day after day for the whole fourteen weeks, they were losing a few occasional men through snipers or else through Bombs. The bombs caused a lot of trouble the trenches being so close together one could throw them in nicely. Many a time I have stood and listened to the reports of them at "Quinns Post".
On Eight Hour Day 3rd October was a day I shall never forget, Johnny Turk must have got excited gave us a demonstration of Schrapnel, putting them in all along the line keeping it up for some time without effect, we only had one casualty on our post. We lost two of our Band Boys here, one being sniped while attending a wounded man, his name was "Harris", I went out to carry him in. The other chap our "Solo" Horn Player "A. Baker" while waiting a call, a small stick bomb came over and caught him on the leg nearly severing it, he died a few hours later, they were both fine chaps. We also had four others wounded "Mat" as you already know and two other chaps, there were also a number taken away sick (Mat) joining us up again in October. Out of a total of 28 there were 12 to return safely, since then there have been two or three of the old hands joining up again.
The Snow coming in November was an interesting spectacle being for the most of us, our first experience. It started about ten o'clock at night and lasted for about sixteen hours. Waking up next morning we found ourselves snowed up; looking out from our dug-out at the hills behind us, it looked as though someone sprinkled flour all over them. To get out we had to push it away from our little homes, I then wrote my name in it, afterwards Mat and I had a snowball fight, but it got too cold for our fingers. When the snow had finished falling it got very cold, making the hills in an awful state of mud and slush. Water was scarce at the time and gathering it up we put it in a jar and then lit a fire under it. Boiling the billy we had a blow out, up to then we had only been getting one cup of tea each day, I can tell you the snow came in very handy.
Well Bob, I had cold feet for three weeks after that experience. The next flutter was the introduction which led to the evacuation, "A three days silence, not a shot to be fired", although at the time we had no news to tell what it was for. Of course there were always "lantrines" as we call them flying about, anyhow Johnny Turk couldn't make this out, and at time he got a bit bold, sneaking over to have a look what was going doing. The boys gave them a bit of hurry up to get back with. There was a Periscope poking up everywhere along the line, where as before-hand as