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[Page 28]
the enemy night & day and the constant raids & patrolling of No man's Land at night, together with organised bomby[?] "stunts" undertaken by small detached parties wore down his troops morale & they were no match at all for the Australians at this semi-open warfare. Step by step they gave ground. The enemy troops opposing us here appeared much inferior to the Prussian Guards & others we had met with formerly. Some of them were mere boys. We picked soldiers of the Kaiser had been flung into the struggle for Paris that had been going on down South. At this time we heard of the successful counter-attacks made by the Allied Armies on the other Fronts and the commencement of the rear ward movements by the enemy in the big salient Nieppe wood was one of the places which we first held in Flanders after our return from Amiens. We relieved an English regiment there; the Grenadier Guards. My Batt. was in supports to the front line and we camped at a large French farm-house that was still intact & still partly occupied "The owner was not able to get all his stock away as the place was so near the line and under fire so we procured several sheep & pigs a few fowls and bags of potatoes from him. For once in many long month the troops had a real "dinkum" meal; indeed at times we could have been seen frying chips & chops between meals, not to mention the fish that were obtained from the creek in the Wood by the use of our Mill's grenades.
But that fish-bombing "stunt" was soon put a stop to