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[Page 70]

Sun. May 13 (cont) I was odd man out. We drew to see who should take out the first patient, & Maggs, Bowden, Stan Wright Bricky & Lew Ballard drew No 1. Just as they moved off a shell burst almost on top of 'em & I had to take Magg's place as he got a bad dose of shell shock. We arrived safely at the relay. On our way back through the sap, Fritz set an aeroplane alight with a shell. It lit the place up as light as day. A good number of men were about & Fritz peppered them hot & strong with shrapnel & H.E. None of our party were hit, but we were mighty glad to get back to our dug-out. Joy Koller, B.W. Howard. Stan Wright & Archie Deed were in the dug-out with us. We were kept going for a time, then things slackened down a bit. It was impossible to get any rest, as our dug-out was small, & the shells kicked up such a deuce of a row, so we had a feed.

Towards daylight the wounded began to arrive & we were kept going the whole time. Fritz kept up a terrific barrage & it was really marvellous that none of us got hit. Stan Wright got hit in the arm with a piece of shrapnel. We took his tunic off to examine him. His tunic & shirt were torn & on his arm was a little scratch. Shag Shearer, Armstrong, Bluey Stanton & Jack Bain were No. 3 squad. They were in another dug-out with Bob Roberts. Fritz kept up his Barrage all day & the place was a perfect Hell; but as there was no shelter for the poor devils who got wounded, we had to carry them through & trust to Luck. We always returned along the sap, but it was impossible to carry a stretcher through, as it was too narrow. During the afternoon 3 poor devils who were working in the sap were blown to pieces. From the end of the sap to our dug-out was about 100 yds. & we used to cover it in about 9.3/5

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