Lewis war diary, August 1917-March 1919 / James Ray Lewis - Page 94
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[Page 94]
and he did put some crabs (shells) over that morning. Out in no mans land was a ruined building.
Nothing untoward happened here for the 4 days we were in the line but the men were falling sick of the Dogs Disease and the Battalion was getting very weak, so at the end of 4 days they took us out back to Blanchy Fronville, and as we went out that night the eighteen pounders were digging in closer up, and that means a stunt soon. The trenches at Blanchy Fronville were on a rise on the left of the Amiens Cambrai road, if one were travelling to Amiens, and just behind the Railway. A big shell was occasionally fired over, to try to locate the French batteries that were hidden in the woods there. On the night of the 4th of July about 4 o,clock the 3rd-4th and 2nd divisions were to do a hop over on the front from Hamel to Villers Bretoneux. At 4 o'clock the barrage opened up, we were waiting for it, for a barrage is a fine sight or rather a fine noise.
At the zero hour (4 o'clock) there was a sound like several trees falling up rapidly in succession, and then it broke out all along the front like hundreds of trees falling up.
disease