Item 01: Frank Hurley war diary, 21 August-28 October 1917 - Page 149
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[Page 149]
weather favoring took the car to Birr Cross roads. The shelling of a few days past has all been again repaired, & the roads though suffering from the rains are in reasonably good condition. Ypres is fairly quiet. At Birr Cross roads we left the car, & walked over the duckboards right out to Zonnebeke. The shell craters are filled with water & the battlefield is a vast quagmire. One of the most pitiful & heroic sights is to see the ammunition pack horses bringing up shells & charges. Their drivers leading & often going up to the thigh in slimy mud. The horses stumble through, sometimes falling into shell craters, from which they have to be hauled. Oh it is a wicked agonising sight. Here & there lay dead half buried in mud, horses & broken waggons all cogently telling some tragedy &