Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 24
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[Page 24]
Dec 30
darkness was very intense, & nothing could be seen but the shadow of the man ahead of you, a brief length of the duckboards upon which we were walking, & the occasional deeper blackness by the edge of it, where there were shell holes. The duckboards were very slippery, and accounted for many falls, which are not pleasant, especially with full equipment; & the presence of these black holes to fall in increased it made one more nervousness about them. Contrary to my expectations the duckboard track proved a very lengthy one before we reached our destination; but towards the end the Germans made things better for us by their habit of sending up "flares" – very much like the thousand times magnified stars from what are known as "Roman Candles" – which, though a long way away, threw some light on our paths. Our track went down suddenly & we