Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 108
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[Page 108]
& see the damage. It is a mass of ruins, streets littered with broken glass & debris, & through broken walls, the inside of the houses can be seen with coffee still on the stove & wine in glasses, half drunk. Of course it is empty: the people simply had to leave things as they were, and clear.
On the road from Caestre there is a team of four horses & a broken - all dead, of course – and a broken waggon. The outfit was caught by a bomb. The horses legs & heads are broken & grotesquely twisted, & the entrails of one are hanging out. It is a ghastly sight.
We are in billets – our company – in a farmhouse building, with plenty of good straw to be on, & a litter of pigs, which is rapidly decreasing, on the premises. Today we got some batches of reinf Planes try some bombing, but have not got near our premises, if they are the objective.
Fritz is trying some long distance shells, big fellows, at a battery near-bye; and, as they fall erratically, they are not pleasant to hear coming. At night the darkness seems lighted, away into the distance, by a series of bonfires, where farms & villages are burning.
Today we received some fair sized batches of reinforcements, and the strength of No 8 is being made up. Lt Wilkinson is to take