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[Page 26]
the 4/5/17 and the 1st Btn releived the 28th Btn and at about 3 a.m. we got orders to man the Parapet and seeing men comeing towards us we opened fire on them and they turned out to be some of the 2nd Btn lost. But I dont think we done much if any damage to them. This is the place where the Australians broke through the great Hindenburg line and where Snowy Howell won his V.C. [on 6 May] for the Huns was in the same trench as we was and we had to bomb him out and we kept this up all day and night and there was wounded, dyeing and dead everywhere one looked and this went on all day up till about 10 P.M. Then it eased off for a while then it started again about midnight and at about 1 or 2 a.m. on the morning of the 5/4/17 Cpl McCowan and I was looking over the Parapet and there was an explosion between us and he asked me if I was hit. I said no and he said he was not hit and about 5 minutes after he told me he was hit in the right thigh and I have learnt since that he got 17 peaces out of that explosion but what it was neither of us as any idea what it was up to the present day. And I never got a scratch out of it. But at 3 a.m. a shell came and it got six out of eight us 2 being killed and I got a peice in the right anckele. Then I made off for the Dressing station as fast as I could. Bob Creasy said to me go for your life and catch up to McCowan and I did but I did not catch him. I and another fellow went out together he was hit in the head and one part of the trench we had to wait for about ½ hour he was shelling so heavey. We managed to get out to the Dressing station at about seven am. then we walked on to the next one but the Horse ambulance picked us up and took us on to Vaulx where we was inoculated and sent to the 3rd Australian casualty clearing station in a motor ambulance where we was put on the ambulance train No. 32 for Rouin [Rouen] at 2 P.M. and traveled alnight, and we landed at Ruion at 7.45 a.m on the 6/5/17 where we had to make some more new mates for we was sent to different hospitals.
I was sent to No. 10 General Hospital and put to bed and I went sound asleep and they woke me up at 2 P.M. to go under the X rays and they put me back to bed and I was glad for I was dead beat and at 2 P.M. on the 8/5/17 I was put under the opperation and the last I remember was the Docter said draw this in and blow it out as if you was blowing the germans away. And I said to hell with you and the Germans and I never woke till 5.30 PM. The boys said I kicked up a terrible row when I were coming too they said I was throwing my arms about as if I was throwing the bombs about and then I said I am hit with a 9/2 shell and then I woke and the pain of my leg was something awfull and I had no sleep the rest of the night and on the 9/5/17 the doctor marked me for England. So I laid in bed till the 17/5/17 when I was taken at 5.45 to the train No.29 when we left Rouin for Le Harve [Le Havre] at 11a.m. I was put in a top bed and I could not see any part of the country we past through and we arrived at 4.15 PM then we was put on board the troopship Warilda (which has been sunk since) and we left Le Harve for Southampton at 9 P.M. With all lights out and we had to sleep with life belts on and we landed at Southampton at 4 a.m. on the 18/5/17 and we laid along side the wharf till 11 a.m. when we was put on board No.12 ambulance train we passed through some beautifull country and we passed through the city of Salisbury, Andover and Exiter [Exeter] where we stayed for about