Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 255
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[Page 255]
126
land, as the whole of our artillery began its terrific bombardment. The sky was lighted up as though by unceasing sheet lightning, and the sound of the guns firing as rapidly as possible was blended into one continuous rumbling roar. We ran past the still smoking mine craters to the well defined line of continually bursting shells that was the beginning of the creeping barrage, approaching cautiously to within about sixty yards of it, took what shelter we could in shell holes, and waited for it to lift. It was still dark when the barrage stepped steadily back, from one increased range to another, smashing the German rear trenches and strong-points as it went, and confining what was left of the enemy in very deep dugouts. We followed it over the rough mangled ground, our paths lighted by the flashes of the bursting shells.
It was a stop-and-go process for about two thirds of a mile until, just at first light, we reached our objective in front of a demolished farmhouse (Grey Farm) with our left flank on the little Douve rivulet. We suffered a few casualties from a distant enfilading machine gun as we approached our goal, and a few hostile snipers were busy while we were digging in; creating the beginnings of a front line trench by connecting a line of shell holes. While doing this we had some more men knocked out by machine gunners who had emerged from deep dugouts when we and the barrage had gone past, but a few Mills bombs tossed into their lair by a "mopping-up" squad soon silenced them.
During three days we held this position against two counter-attacks, and one afternoon we had nearly a score of big shells dropped on us by our own 9.2 inch howitzers: three men were killed and a few injured before we could stop this fiasco by sending off a message carried by pigeons we had brought with us. Headquarters had received incorrect information that Grey Farm was still held by the Germans. It was a hair-raising experience. First, away in the distance one could hear the rumble of one of these shells coming and then see the monster coming straight at you out of the sky, seemingly getting bigger and bigger as it neared one: it was like having a nightmare.