Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 102
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[Page 102]
of the souvenirs for themselves, one fellow had a handker chief with old Hindenburg's mug in the centre of it. While in the old German line we were mostly digging trenches in the rear of the outposts at night and these jobs aren't too pleasant though to an ordinary person they imply only work as he reads of them, and he has a very hazy notion of what it really means. As we walked out to fatigue, one could hear the bullets slapping the trees as we walked by them, and often a whiz-bang would whi-izz by; these frightend me more than anything, the noise made one nervous. And often while out on Fatigue the bullets would come squeaking around and one would lie down in his section of trench, and a bullet would flick the earth he had been digging out.
One always looked around for a whizz-bang or other shellhole in his section of trench, as it shattered the earth and made it easy digging. One night in a whizzbang hole, it was phosphorescent and I had to be careful of the luminous stuff sticking to my clothes as I worked. Which also reminds one that when Fritzs shells burst close one can smell a strong smell of phosphorus, so the explosive must contain some, or is