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[Page 105]
while in this camp especially of a night but luckily the camp was not hit, the battalion suffering no casualties. our stay in these huts lasted until the night of the 28th when we moved forward to the front line where we relieved the 9th Battalion after a long march. This position was quite close to the western outskirts of the village Meteren also within a hundred yards of the old Farm House which had been our billet when out of the line training some three months before. The trenches here were in fairly good order & the one which we occupied had only recently been captured from the Huns by the 9th Battalion, there being plenty of Hun equipment & gear lying in & about the trench. This place was now the scene of the second lot of fighting during the Great War for within a few yards to the rear of our trench were the graves of several British Tommys who had been killed by an enemy machine gun, which was fired from the steeple of the church in Meteren during the Huns first rush in 1914. While occupying this position our chief duties consisted of consolidation, Barb wiring, night patrolling in no mans land & worry Fritz as much as possible with Bombs, Rifle Grenade, Rifle and machine guns. On several occasions our artillery fired with deadly accuracy on the enemy's trenches with the result that the Huns were either blown out of their positions or as soon as our artillery would open out the Huns would leave their trench and run overland to some place of safety. This would expose them to our rifle & machine gun fire & some good shooting was indulged in by the front line troops who caused many casualties at the same time our boys running great risks in the excitement by exposing themselves but luckily the Huns never fired a shot in return. The enemy suffered some heavy casualties & on a couple of occasions was compelled to carry his wounded out during daylight using a huge Red Cross flag for protection to his
[Image includes a hand drawn sketch showing the Australian and German positions around the village of Meteren]