Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 77
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[Page 77]
distance practically cannot be seen.
The British hardly ever use flares. Fritz threw one up here at least every 3 minutes so we had to work. I never worked so hard in all my life, the water ran off the rim of my tin hat and it was a chilly night too. Oh how pleasant it was to lie flat on the ground with the bullets, whit, whitting, about and wondering if it was Goodbye, for a newhand always imagines things to be worse than they really are. One man got 6 bullets in his stomach and several others were hit. Another had a flare fall between his legs but kept still till it burnt out.
On the third night of digging we had nearly completed the trench. We had just come in off the fatigue, and were standing to in the trench talking. Fritz was indulging in the occupation of throwing a few pineapples (a trench mortar bomb) over on us this night the 13th of May he was throwing rather more than usual in fact - was putting up a bit of a barrage. We took little notice of the bombs except to duck when one came near for you can see them coming through the air as they have a streak of light at their tail as they come.
Suddenly one of us said "duck", and as I ducked I heard a sharp "hiss", and then a burst, as if it were on us almost, a rush of hot air