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[Page 22]
While going home along the road that night our party was challenged by an English artilleryman on sentry work it taking some considerable time to make him understand who we were & where we were going, for about these parts spies were supposed to be in abundance & strictest precautions were necessary especially at night time. it was a very tired party thet arrived back at the billet & was not long before all were well asleep after fourteen hours work that day. Next morning after breakfast the company was fallen in & taken for a bath which came as a luxury to us for it was some time since we had had one. The march to the baths was quite five miles there & back, Fritz shelling the party on the way there but we were lucky for no one was hit although some shells fell close. At 11PM that night the troops were aroused from their slumber by an alarm, having to get into their full gear then assemble in the yard of the billet this having to be done in the dark. The fall in lasted for half an hour when, the troops were told that the hun was bombarding & using gas on the sector on our left, after which the company was dismissed orders having been received for everyone to remain in their clothes for the night. On the 28th April 1916 the company was again detailed on fourteen hours fatigue as predescribed finishing about midnight. During our spare moments of the day while in this billet the troops would sit watching our artillery on the straffing business, the gun pits & position being well concealed in Hay stack, old barns & behind hedges, in every case being very hard to find with a naked eye. After an early reveille on 30th April the company was sent on fatigue at 7AM to the front line when we had to stay working with engineers all that day & most of the night arriving back at the billet about midnight tired out. The next couple of days were spent in & about the billet with very little to do & this being the first real spell the boys had had for some time they fully appreciated it.