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[Page 44]
in order to mislead the enemy.
Great amusement is being caused on board here by the various anecdotes of what each one did when the shell was whizzing over us. Everyone however appears to have ducked. It being a percussion shell it had to strike something
solid to explode, so had it got the funnel, near which we were standing, it may have inconvenienced us a trifle.
There is some doubt as to how this big gun was silenced. Some say that the Australian Infantry rushed the position & made the enemy retreat. While it was firing however, the Queen Elizabeth fired two 15 inch guns at them, so may be she was responsible. When one realises what is happening today, it becomes wonderful. I am sure that such a sight as this one was, early this morning, will not be seen again during my lifetime. With shrapnel bursting all over the mountains, the big warships pouring shells right up the valleys, the incessant fire of machine gun & rifle fire, & the rushing about of Soldiers as they shifted from ridge to ridge all the while heedless of comrades falling by their side, made it a weird & wonderful yet awful spectacle. One can never realise what warfare is, until you get amongst it like that. The sounds of those machine guns is hellish.
We timed the difference between the various happenings of a 12 inch gun fired from the Majestic. From the flash when the gun is fired to the time you