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[Page 25]
Mr Fisher, High Commissioner, & Mr Hughes Prime Minister of Australia. For this parade the brigade was assembled in a big paddock close by our billet at 10AM the inspecting party arriving about 1PM & by that time the troops were in a very bad mood caused by the three hours wait. When the visitors arrived by car they were taken onto a platform which had been erected for the occasion, where a few short speeches were delivered, then the parade dismissed. The next few days were spent very quietly about the billet engaged in parade ground work of a very mild nature. Reveille was at 2.30AM on the 5th of June & as soon as all had dressed & fallen in the battalion set of on a fifteen mile route march before breakfast. Throughout the whole of the march it rained making things very uncomfortable but we were reminded of the fact that we were soldiers having to do as we were ordered. it was 10.30AM when we arrived back at the billet everyone being in a bad humour & heaping curses upon the "Heads" who were responsible for the mornings manoevoures. That afternoon the company was given instruction in modern bayonet fighting by an Imperial Sergeant Major. During the next couple of days things settled down with only the usual routine of parade ground work to do. Whilst in these billets the troops used to spend their spare time & money in the neighbouring villages & taking everything into consideration all were well pleased with the place. The battalion became busy on the 9th of June for orders were received to pack all gear ready to move to the forward area again. The move took place at dusk that night, my company going to an old school in the ruined village of Fleur-Baix where we relieved a company of the 7th Battalion. A couple of days previous to moving to this place we were told about the death of Lord Kitchener which came as a very severe blow to all the troops. During the stay in the School at Fleur-Baix the company was engaged on engineers fatigue such as trench digging & consolidating the front line & support positions. I was very lucky, for the day following the arrival at Fleur-Baix I was detailed as company orderly which meant remaining in the billet, thus missing all fatigue work having very little to do. During the spare moments of the day I managed to have a look round the village which had suffered severely from the enemies artillery, the ruins being very numerous, but there were a few french people who remained in the place in shops selling wearing to the soldiers & they were fairly well patronized by the boys. During the stay there, "B" Company who were quartered in a big barn near the front line were shelled by Fritz who succeeded in gaining several direct hits on the place, finally setting the place on fire the place having to be evacuated. The above shelling caused a considerable amount of excitement with several casualties but luckily no one was killed. That night "B" Company was moved back to our billet new gear was issued to the company to replace the gear that had been burned in their billet. our stay lasted at Fleur-Baix until dusk of the 23rd of June when the battalion moved forward passing through a long communication trench called "Dead Dog Avenue" to the front line where we relieved the 1st Battalion. The relief was carried out without a casualties & it only being the second time most of us had been in the front line we were still very curious but it was very much similar to the last part of the line we occupied. The front line was very strongly built with plenty of dugouts & shelter for the troops from the enemies fire. Just in rear of the front line was the remains of an old convent which had been considerably knocked about & practically all that could be seen was two of the walls that enclosed the convent grounds & even these had been blown about by shell fire