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[Page 220]

[Page 4 of letter missing]

5.

and ammunition, hand grenades, trench mortars, everything in chaos & disruption. However we got a case & carried him in through a rain of shrapnel & didn't stop anything. Went out again in the afternoon had a lively time but found no wounded - procured a couple of German rifles.

During the afternoon & night Fritz made two counter attacks but was hopelessly cut up by our barrage. The noise was tremendous. The scream & burst of shrapnel & high explosives were indistinguishable amongst thrashing & deafening din. At first the line was picked out by a series of smoke bursts but this in keeping with the stunning roar developed into one huge cloud of smoke & dust & there the fight went on. God only knows the indescribable miseries & agony suffered under the pale of that cloud, and there the infantry stuck to it and died & even lived - it is unimaginable. We worked part of our way on a hill from where we could see everything. Down on the flat we worked up to about 600 yards of the front line & that was hard enough although all the enemy fire was concentrated on our front line supports. It was impossible for the regimental bearers to bring the wounded out to us until this was over but they came in later  & surprisingly few. The German losses must have been tremendous for they came over in massed formation & that barrage

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