Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 67

[Page 67]

A gap again – Jan 29 – Feb 25

Feb 26
We have shifted camp from Irish House to Voormezelle, and are in tents in a field near the ruins of the Convent. At the gate of this convent the Germans crucified a Highlander, and, I think, a Canadian. The men object strongly to being in the tents; and other men, who are billeted in the vicinity are annoyed: they say the tents will be observed and will draw fire.

My notes have been suspended for a while. I had a painful accident with some cordite – sixteen bags of 4.5 cordite charges which we are in the habit of bringing back with us to throw in handfuls on the fire (it burns with intense heat, & dries the wood) were lying in one of the corrugations of our hut, & I was sitting cross legged beside it before the fire, when a spark must have caught it, & the whole lot went off.

Fortunately cordite needs to be confined to explode, & this simply gave off an intense flame which filled the hut, but mainly swept round the iron towards the roof. I [it?] woke the other two, who were sleeping, & we shot into the air, myself singed like a cinder. The blanket over the doorway was also burnt to a cinder, but the fire did not damage much that was not near it. It took my hair off (I was needing a haircut); and its result was that a good deal of my skin came away like scorched leather, and I