Sullivan letter diary, 27 October 1915-9 October 1917 / Eugene Sullivan - Page 267
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[Page 267]
Friday, 15th June - 1917.
My dear parents/.
Since last writing to you I have been through portion of the Spring offensive and all hands had a very lively time for a few days. Although we read the full account of these things in the papers, and a very accurate account too, with absolutely no embellishments, still we are forbidden to write anything which will betray our whereabouts or indicate the place at which our gallant boys made their attack. From the information you have gleaned from letters published in our local paper concerning the doing of this battalion you should have very little difficulty in location our position in the big advance.
For some days previous to the advance the enemies big guns bombarded our main roads along which the transport column , carrying supplies, had to pass, and also put several shells in the towns in which the troop were billeted.
Everywhere near the front the artillery activity was becoming more pronounced and day and night supplies of all kinds, particularly shells &c. were being carefully stored away for the coming event, until the whole country-side behind the lines was like an immense arsenal. Every hedge within miles seemed to hold its battery of guns of all sizes and calibres, and when traversing any of the fields near the line one would constantly be confronted by the yawning mouths of guns, some of them giant howitzers, in the most unlikely places. In some places a peaceful looking field dotted with haystacks would turn out to be a regular inferno when the guns were in action, each haystack, being merely a dummy, sheltering a death-dealing monster.
We moved up into our position, which I am pleased to say was some