Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 72
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[Page 72]
the wheeze of it through the air the shell being quicker than the sound. As night shuts down we hear our artillary at work in an intermittent fashion, the 18 pounders slap-bang sla-a-pp bang sla-bang and the boom of the bigger guns further back. Occasionally we hear a burst and plung in reply. The shells go overhead like the flight of so many bronzewing pigeons.
Along the front flares are going up, some rifle fire occasionally, punctuated by the rattle of a Vickers now and then.
At day we sleep and at night we do fatigues, which consists mostly of digging support trenches. Each man digs his section of trenches and as he finishes is sent home to his little home in the mud. Going out and coming back from fatigue usually means getting through or hanging up in some 3 fences of double apron barb wire which have to be negotiated, falling over shell holes and slippy roads and falling down steep banks. Some of the fields are covered with clover quite ankle deep.
Our rations consist in the morning of bread one loaf to 4 or 6 cheese a little jam bacon and butter and at night stew.
In the daytime one can see aircraft dodgeing about and the white or black fleccey