Item 03: Archie Barwick diary, 10 May-23 July 1916 - Page 262
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[Page 262]
a fine big town in her day, but is now absolutely ruined there is scarcely a house in her that has not been hit by German guns, the church there which was once a beautiful building present a most peculiar sight, she is battered & bashed almost pieces but still the tower stands & right on top there is a bronze figure of the Lord which weighs 20 tons, a shell has hit the statue & knocked it completely down & there it hangs hundreds of feet in the air suspended from nothing by the look of it, & in the attitude of a man about to take a dive into the water
There are thousands of troops billeted in and around Albert, for the place is pretty safe now the Germans have been driven back from it, its hard to say what the people will do with the town for she is hardly worth while rebuilding