Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 115
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[Page 115]
and lay on his back reading a magazine. Tim Martin who had been missing, came down in broad daylight fully drunk, & standing at the top of the trench informed us that he had found wine. At 10.30 pm we sent cylinder gas over to Fritz as a present. Though we are comparatively quiet (we get hard stuff thrown at us of course, & our guns send considerably more back) the French seem to be stunting continually, by the barrages laid on. They are magnificent. When they start we can see the long line of Fritz flares going up all the way towards Kemmel; and the long hill slope at the back of us, which culminates in Mont des Cats is a mass of gun flashes. Our platoon is 19 strong all told. While on observation post about fifty yards in front, in a hedge, I got a shock. A party of Germans had approached, and I waited with a bomb ready for them; but they did not come. In the relaxation from the tension I had felt I unscrewed the bomb I had on which I had been depending, and found that it wasn't detonated! Subsequently we found 2 dozen undetonated bombs in the trench! The episode, conjuring an imagination of what might have happened, has set my nerves on edge. I can't see a bomb, but I want to inspect it; and I cannot accept any one as an honest bomb.