Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 112
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[Page 112]
the other. The men all got clear in their parachutes, but I guess it was no joke for them. The balloons just flare up, burn for a little and then there is a black patch of smoke in the sky, which rapidly dissapates into the air. It was a day in which big fleecey cumulus clouds hung in the sky.The plane gets over close to the balloons by creeping behind the clouds, then when close enough, it darts out and fires tracer bullets into the ballons, setting fire to them. Our planes brought him down, but unluckily, the damage was done.
When in the line we often saw what looked like toy balloons sailing over to Fritzs line and were ordered not to fire on them. They were proaganda balloons, telling him what we would do to him later.
Out Batt doctor was killed by a shell and the doctor who took his place was a famous Antarctic explorer who was with Mawson's expedition in I think 1911. He was a, "dinkum", chap too. He was with us for a short time before when we were at Glisy and our Padre got him to give us a lecture on his Polar trip, one sunday evening, very interesting too.
Our Padre was a jolly good fellow. There are Padre's and padres some aren't worth their salt, but he was! He did his best and we were a shocking godless lot. He used to talk to the men in a