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[Page 10]
sap with machine guns, or he would have got us. At 11p.m. the 41st Bn relieved us, & we were wearily marched out of the line. Oh Lor' what a terrible walk we had. God knows how we did it, our feet were all terribly sore, & it was a terrible distance. We left the line about midnight & had to go to Bn Hdq's in a sunken road to have our tea & stew but on this new front our officer didn't know the way & we got lost, & tramped all over creations. It looked as if we'd never get there, we tramped & tramped lumping our rifles & various gear. The officer asked if anyone knew the way, but no one did. At last, after climbing embankments, & tramping across grassy ground we struck it. Had hot tea & stew hurriedly amp; had to set out on another hellish long tramp. Our feet were terribly sore, amp; didn't they ache. It was a clear night & Fritz's 'planes were up, & one dropped some bombs which burst with an awful deafening crash not far from us. This part of our tramp was along the road, we went through a village, talk about knocked about! I have seen some battered villages in France, but this beats all. It was battered to a pile of rubbish; I suppose before the advance Fritz was in it. On we tramped , & the chaps were singing out , Go slow, what about a spell. At last, about 5 hours' tramping brought us to our halting place, there weren't enough shelters & several had to doss outside. They had no coats or waterproofs, & after sweating on the long march must have been very cold in the night.
Sunday 11 Aug
I got under a low tarpaulin shelter