Cocks letter diary, 1916-1919 / Verner Cocks - Page 250
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[Page 250]
Australians are generally until they have to be carried. The average weight of those we carried must have been eleven stone.
Jack & I are not too hefty but we kept going for sixteen hours continuously & practically without anything to eat or drink barring a tot of rum & a few sardines, while much bigger chaps were knocked up earlier.
After being relieved we had to walk back four miles in the rain & mud. We had no idea of the way but made towards a mountain we knew in the distance. Had I not been so tired I would have loved to explore many of the German dugouts we passed but it was as much as I could do to make my way along. Saw a couple of the mine craters blown out in the last stunt. They are enormous - one was about 75 yards in diameter & 50 deep. It is incredible that such a huge mass of earth
13.