Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 55]
so – what time we gazed up at the towering [indecipherable] [indecipherable] of sandy soil frowning down upon us, we waited tense, expectant, like dogs in the leash, every muscle strained for the moment of attack – a few whisper orders, the tightening of buckle and strap the stealthy loosing of the bayonet from its scabbard – " The line will advance !!! " then over all the bloody fiends of Hell let loose. Every rifle, every gun, opened up simultaneously; the ridge became a blaze of fire a murderous enfilade from the enemy's right swept that hillside with a rain of lead; men withered away under it; the wounded, screaming in their agonies, rolled down the sheer slope, filling the gully below with a mass of writhing human flesh, soaking the gully in a torrent of blood.
We hung on with our bare hands to get a grip of that terriblesoil, which crumbled away at the touch; scrambling, rolling, sliding in our efforts to get a hold and whilst we hung there voiced from every throat, heard even above their nerve wracking crash of heavy expressives rolled up the strains of "Tipperary" – quite impossible to hear orders it was each man for himself – we knew what we had to do, and did it – at a price over the bodies of our comrades we reach the top of the ridge , in every crevice little stabs of fire, the enemy had their target in front of them , they couldn't miss, they could roll their bombs down in dozens, each would get its mark – at last we got them out of the trenches, the ridge was taken could we hold it ?
On our front end left a trail of lead which might be said to be coming over in a solid mass, our ammunition running out, men volunteered to supply this want, falling on the hillside as they clambered up with the heavy cases, others took their place, they too fell; again came others , they fell laying athwart the cases, making it still more difficult for those that followed to get at them, not for one second during whole of that terrible night had the enemy fire slackened.
At dawn the 16th Bn was a withered remnant. The little ridge on the right of the picture, at the most two feet high, in my [indecipherable] considerably less was the only dead ground in that inferno. The only cover for the supports laying flat on their bellies; bullets plobbing into them, tears and rending them where they lay; specking the ground in a [indecipherable] of little spouts of dust, tearing up the ground under them –and the enemy – as always , coming up in steadily increasing number, their [indecipherable] supports behind them.
Elias Silas 16th A.I.F.