Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 45

[Page 45]

"Stand down" being given; but after a sleep, I felt all right again in the afternoon; so much so that I volunteered to take the place of a man on a fatigue to bring up rations from Clarks' Dump, where the light railway finishes; thinking that he naturally would relieve me of a later fatigue. But he proved no sport, and almost immediately I returned I was on a fatigue carrying "flying pigs" to the Russian Trench Mortar. These shells, which have wings like the blade of a propeller, weigh 154 pounds and have contain, in the shell, 56 pounds of amonal. In tests they made holes 37 feet across & 18 feet deep! When they go off the contusion can be heard even down in our deepest dugout – the one twenty feet down; & the explosion of the charge when it allights a-lights miles away can be distinctly felt. The idea is that we are trying to break some locks in the Comines Canal which will flood the lowlying German positions. As the Germans have been searching for the mortar the ground all round is pitted with shell holes; and the carrying of the huge shells in the darkness, two of us supporting one shell tied to a pole, is awkward work. Immediately after this, I was out with a camouflage party; and then came the call to carry boxes of 303 – service rifle ammunition. We were very shorthanded – platoon strength down to 25, - and there is a lot of work to do; but this beat me. SAA. is heavy, & the duckboards in the communication trench are broken in places by shells, & full of water at the bottom. When I went down I thought I had been hit; the next thing I distinctly recollect was that the doctor was in our dugout stating my temperature at over a hundred.
The M.O. wanted to send me back, but as I protested he