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[Page 37]
to lie unrevealed for ever. But this is only one. There are these artificial chasms all over these hills, entrances hidden & broken by shell fire, which imprison secrets of more than sentimental significance. There are a special bodies of reliable men who look for them.
The ground round about here is turned, almost every foot of it, by successive shell fire. The fighting has be stern & hard and costly. How ever we dislodged Fritz from these field fortifications I do not know. They were built by him with the full intention of occupying them "for the duration & three months afterwards" . I often wonder, as the Hun prisoners come back down the railway line – built since we occupied their lines – and see our almost perfect lines of communication running through the fine trenches they a few months back thought impregnable, what they think. They can see the steady line of Anzac transport, & the ceasless line of Tommy transport, moving like two silent centipedes, towards their new lines. He knows we now have mastered our shortcomings, and have munitions in plenty. The majority express their ample satisfaction to work for 1/- per day behind the British lines.
Dec 16th 1916. Having been put on "light duty" due to a bad cough and sore feet, three of us were sent out from "Kaffir Camp" on a light job of picketing some timber.
This timber is stacked in piles, and is all taken from old captured German dugouts. We now use it for the same purpose, but several camps of Artillery boys, in good Australian style, have been commandeering it for fire wood, resulting in our being sent out to picquet it. We have a splendid ex-hun dugout to live in, and are very comfortable indeed. A stairway leads underground 30 feet into a nice little room with 2 bunks and a nice brazier. We were very comfortable.
A trip to the Camp every day at 4 P.M. to draw rations, gave us a chance to visit an