Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 92
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[Page 92]
The country in the valley adjoining the river is of very springy turf and excellent for building shelters for the A, S, C camps and horses which camp here all along the valley, haveing their Bivvy's in the steep sides of the valley. After about 6 days or so here we tramped out to go into the line at Villers Brettonneux. We started at about 4 o,clock in the evening and marched along the Amiens Cambrai road lined with its poplar trees. Before the war, this road was said to be a motorists dream , and undoubtedley was, but the heavy traffic used by the army had cut it to pieces. After crossing the railway line, we turned along a road going to the left soon after we branched off Fritz put a barrage of gas and H,C down on us. We passed this and when we reached the reserves he shelled it and wounded one of our men and a transport corporal a horse was killed. The transport corporal was badly hit, I thought he was killed at first, he was spreadeagled in the roadway unconscious for a long time. It is funny when shells start to burst pretty close to one, the way one dodges about. Charlie Chaplin isn't in it with the capers one does. I remember resting once against a bank when on fatigue