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[Page 22]
into puddles a foot deep or caught under the iron sleepers. To make matters worse the trucks would occasionally slip clear of the rails, thus holding up the whole "train" & and necessitating the unloading of the truck. Rain fell steadily the whole time & in the darkness rendered more obscure & confusion by the intermittent flashes of the flares men would occasionally fall into a shell crater of in passing over the small boards acting as bridges, plunge headlong into a rushing stream. Bullets from enemy machine guns played continually around the line. At best we suffered no casualties other than a couple of sprained ankles. Despite the all this there was very little grumbling. It was to use that the popular term "backsheesh" for the Hun & nobody minded a bit of overtime.
Thus the first load of - to be used by the Australians in France was brought to the firing line.
During the following week German long range artillery put some big shells into the billets of Fleurbaix accounting for a few casualties.
On Monday 4th July we left Fleurbaix during one of the usual nightly bombardments. A few shrapnel shells landed in the village but we reached our billets near Sailly safely. Here we remained for a week in a perfect turmoil of rumour. Sunday 9th we set out to our old billets neat Outersteene arriving there at about 10.30.
Monday 10th we marched to Bailleul to the Railway Station entraining for the Somme where the "B.P." was in progress at 11 PM. Early on the morning of the 11th July we reached the