Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 100
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[Page 100]
whizzbang or a burst from a machine gun across. There was a wheat crop in front which obstructed his view. So we dug and there was no wind and we were nearly suffocated with the stench. At last we got a hole about 2 feet deep, and rolled him in, and shovelled the dirt in. We put a cross of two slats nailed together over him with, "Here lies a dead Fritz", scrawled on in puce pencil. For he was only fighting for his country, like we were. It made one think hard; these things sometimes; at home perhaps his loved ones used to mourn for him, rotting out here.
On the left of the C,T,. coming from our old front line to this, we saw what appeared to be a cloak, on the edge of the wheat; on crawling out to it there was the dried skeleton body of a tommy in it, his hair was bleached white, killed in March I suppose, and this was the middle of July. Fritz had been ratting him I suppose for a gospel of St John was lying alongside him, and I picked it up and reverently placed it in my pocket, then I pinched his rifle cover for mine was getting worn, it had the one word, "Watchman", on it his name I suppose. A bit further down the trench was a broken aeroplane The engine had been burnt, and I heard someone say that on close inspection there were 2 burnt