Item 01: Frank Hurley war diary, 21 August-28 October 1917 - Page 138
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[Page 138]
sheltered bank lay a group of dead men. Sitting by them in little scooped out recesses sat a few living; but so emaciated by fatigue & shell shock that it was hard to differentiate. Still the whole way was just another of the many byways to hell one sees out here, & which are so strewn with ghastliness that the only comment is:- "That poor buggar copped it thick" or else nothing at all. Our fellows, 3rd division & the N. Zealanders obtained their objective, Poelcapelle, but were driven out again. We captured a number of prisoners though not many. We left the embankment near Zonnebeke Station & took to the Duckboards for home. These slippery-slidy ways are the only possible routes over a vast slough of rain filled shell craters. It took us two hours solid walk to return & it was not