Mercer papers, 9 December 1917-19 June 1919 / Harold Mercer - Page 70
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[Page 70]
claims all the best areas and we are thrust into regions where we get nastily shelled sometimes. Our C.O. never visits the working parties when they are in advanced positions, so that it doesn't matter to him.
When we go out to work we take lunch with us & "boil the billy". The "billy is usually three petrol tins, and one man is told off to get make the tea each day. The man on this job became a casualty & the job went begging until I took it. To me it seemed to offer a relief from the carrying of heavy shells; but I soon learnt the reason of the refusal of the men to take the "soft snap". The smoke of the fire is liable to draw fire at times; and it is a rotten thing to be by oneself when the shells are falling. The possibilities of being hit with noone to attend to you make themselves gruesomely present.
Feb 28
While working above "the Crater" where a number of bones, presumably Germans', have been dug up by shell fire, I found a thigh bone that must have belonged to a giant. Placed with its lower end against my knee, the bone reached up to within three inches of my arm pit.
March 1st
The weather had become bitterly cold again, a sharp wind making matters unpleasant.
March 4th
The rottenness of living in tents is now being made apparently.. Fritz is beginning to throw shells at