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[Page 17]
point then Leutenant ArBecrett [A'Beckett] came up and he said this must be the one boys get in and make it bullet proof and so we did then about 20 of the 11th Btn was comeing towards us from the German lines and opened fire on them but the word was passed on before any damage was done. Then Colonel Heane came up and asked how we were getting on someone said we had no tools to dig the trench so he went away and he brought a arm full of shovels and picks himself. After we got the trench dug I said to Arthur Sands to take my water bottle off my back so I could have a drink in which he did. But I had no drink for two bullets had passed through my water bottle and all the water had run out. It was then breaking day light and we were beginning to see where we was and we could see the huns getting through the Village of Pozieres. And some of the boys out of the truck and after them with rifle and machine gun and what stayed behind was standing on the parapet then we heard Cpt Howell-Price say get down you B fools you will all get shot but we took no notice of him. Then I noticed my arm very stiff and sore and I told A. Sands about it and he looked at my elbow the tunic was torn I took my tunic off and he said that my elbow was cut so he bandage it up. But when and where it was done I could not say. But I felt something touch me just after we got out of the trench to make the attack but it was so light I thought it was a bit of dirt from the explosion of a shell. Well they sent me down to the dressing station.
And on my way back I seen dead and wounded laying every where which proved we had a very high casualty list. And I stopped telling a few of the lads how things where up in the front line (for where I had just left was our new front line) and the Colonel came along and he seen me with my arm tied up so he said are you wounded, I said yes he told me which way to go to the dressing station also told me to hurry on and get out of the danger zone. I got to the dressing station in our old front line and the doctors looked at it and I asked him if it was much. He said had I have had it dressed when it was first done I would not have lost so much oil out of it but as it is you may have a stiff arm then he sent me on to No. 5 F.F.D. [Field Dressing] Station in Albert there was a string of us going down to I saw two stretchers bearers carring a man on a stretcher and a shell came and blew men and stretchers to atoms. When I got to Albert I found the dressing station which was no trouble for all one had to do was to follow the crowd where we got a nice cup of coca and some biscuits we stayed there a while for a motor waggon all the serious ones was sent away by motor ambulance and cases like myself was sent by motor transport wagons. I was sent to Contay where there was a big hospital and I did not expect to go any further. They gave us a good feed such as soup tea coffee cocoa bread jam and biscuits and plenty of smokes. And General Birdwood came around and congratulated us on our win and the French people stood out side the fence waveing and cheering us and saying Viv La Australia for we had won a big battle in takeing Pozieres. After a while I laid down on an old stretcher and needless to say was soon sound asleep and when I woke up two red cross boys was there with another stretcher and they aked me where was the wound and had it been dressed. I said not here so they was going to lift