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[Page 27]
were green fields of wheat gardens, houses, shelled villages & newly dug trenches. All in a few hours, as it seemed. All our work of consolidation and defensive preparations was for Fritz's comfort then. It was all in his hands. Alas! too true. Then were fresh vows taken and a stronger more bitter hatred for the vile Hun was engendered, especially when one saw the devasted crops, houses the shell ground and the sufferings of the populace as they trudged back meeting us on the roads, carrying only what they were able to snatch up on their flight of their household goods. The Division then took over this portion of the Front which proved to be very warm having chiefly to the nature of the country which was in the enemy's favour. The "dumps" for ammunition and the war material were often at dilapidated farmhouses.
Fritz sometimes got a hit on one of these frail structures which went like matchwood. Whenever this happened the night was lit up by the burning building as well as illuminated by the constant stream of many coloured flares used by the enemy, called Verey Lights. Then our boys movements in the vicinity would be silhouetted and all roads and approaches were raked by hostile machine-gun fire. This sort of trick made things awkward for us but the Australian going up towards the line avoided trouble by circling and zig zaging across country. By this means Fritz's shelling & machine gun barrages left in front or were rear. The chief work of the 1st Division whilst on this portion of the front at this time consisted of night raiding. Our Artillery harassed