Item 01: Frank Hurley war diary, 21 August-28 October 1917 - Page 157
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[Page 157]
one does not linger more than necessary in this place over which hangs the pall of gloom & death. Guns boom all around, yet everyone dodges the awful loneliness & hazards of Chateau wood. Just in front of Chateau Wood I came on a 9.2 howitzer battery: three guns had been knocked out before they were set up in position. Westhock ridge was fairly quiet for the moment till I got near the crest. Then the fun began. I took shelter in a thin sandbag dugout, & had the cinema trained on bursting shells of which there was ample sufficiency. They screamed overhead like a flight of rockets. One fell a little short & threw mud over the dugout & fell but a yard away. I owe my life to it being a dud.
The position became so unhealthy, that with Joyce I decided to run the gauntlet & get out of the barrage if possible, as it seemed fatal to stay in our