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[Page 48]
& on the way out, it being pitch dark, we lost the track but stumbled on to the railway line so I though this will surely bring us to the town so we kept to the track but every now & again the line was all tore up with shell fire & I fell several times into big shell holes & cut my Hands & face as it was pitch dark & walking on the sleepers, all of a sudden you went down in a hole, so instead of us getting there about 10 pm it was after 12 midnight, so as there was going to be a raid by us that night if we had gone back at once we should have been surely killed by the return fire of the Huns, so the staff officer told us to go & get a sleep somewhere & to leave early in the morning so we had a couple of Hours sleep & then at 4.30 am we started back with 6 jars of rum each jar in a sand bag two sand bags tied together & slung over the shoulders we got back quite safely at about 6.30 am & one chap in putting his load down hit one jar against another & broke it after all our adventures in getting it.
As we were in the support trenches we had to stand too at daybreak but on account of us working all night we used to sleep during the day time or try to & one morning our officer came round a daybreak & told me to see that all the men were in their places, which I did & as our little shelters were holes driven into the banks & covered over with waterproof sheets, but one chap had left his long rubber boots Hanging out of his dugout & from outside the trench it looked as if someone was lying down & just his boots showing beneath the sheet, so when the officer saw the boots he started to swear & told me to take that mans name for not standing to arms, but when I touched the boots & found them empty of anyone he looked hard at me & walked off, a good joke (one on him)