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[Page 99]
We were not troubled very much by the enemy who was situated in the Pill Boxes about three hundred yards away. On several occasions he sent over a few large trench mortars & on one particular night when I was going to my right post to see how the men were faring I heard a report then saw the flame of a mortar coming towards me through the air. I stopped & got into a shell hole before it went off. As soon as the earth had finished falling I made my way to where the mortar had exploded there finding it had landed under a big tree making a hole large enough to put a fair size house in also blowing the tree bodily about twenty yards. When I arrived at the Right post which was only twenty yards away from the big "Hole" I found that all the men were covered in mud & slush which had been blown in the air by the mortar when it exploded. Another night I took a small patrol of three men out to explore our barb wire defences also to have a look round no mans land. There was a very bright moon shining which evidently gave my party away for the Huns opened out with his machine guns keeping us ducking about from shell hole to shell hole until we managed to get back to the Pill box without a scratch. During the early part of the night of the 20th of March our battalion was relieved by the Tommies then made our way back to Ridgewood Camp & turned in.
The Hun's Offensive 1918
Before turning into bunk on the 25th of March we heard about the Enemy's big offensive down on the Somme which made all of us sure then that we had been taken out of the front line in Flanders to be sent down to assist in the big stunt. The stay in Ridgewood Camp lasted several days each morning bringing fresh rumours about the big push but receiving very little official news about it. After breakfast on the 1st of April orders were issued for the battalion to pack up after which we were marched about half a mile to a Light Railway Depot where the troops we put aboard a minature train which soon had a move on. The ride lasted about half an hour the train taking us to Renninghurlst where we disentrained then the battalion assembled in the Railway Siding where we were told we would remain for a couple of days. Every day whilst we remained here we saw train load after train load of Imperial troops disentraining at the siding from whom we learned that they had just come straight up from the Somme for they were all members of the 5th Army who had born the brunt of the enemy's first attack. The news that we could gather from these troops show us that we were in for a warm time in the near future, also that some of our other Divisions were already busy & were doing excellent work. The Battalion remained in this position for a couple of days the boys having very little to do so we spent our spare time in Poperinghe where it was very common talk among the women folk that as soon as all the Australians left Flanders the Hun would start a fresh offensive there which afterwards proved to be true. On the 3rd of April the Battalion was lined up then set off on the march to Godesvaersvelde where we were put