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[Page 23]
(17)
hurled into the air.
After I had gone a few hundred yards I came across a group of our "C" Company men who were lying in a group, all badly wounded. I knelt down and found one of them to be our Lieutenant whom I made as comfortable as possible, and gave him some whisky which he carried in his bottle. He afterwards died (Lieut Ballard). Also gave the others some water emptying my own water bottle in doing so, but we could always get plenty of water after a battle, by taking the water bottles from the dead soldiers. Whilst I was thus engaged our Captain happened to pass by and sharply told me to advance and get on with our platoon and leave this kind of work to the Army Medical Corps. However, this rebuff, which was quite military and correct, did not prevent me from assisting some more of my wounded comrades further on. We were now getting close to a German pill box, which was rushed and captured. By now Germans were running towards us surrendering (from the various pill boxes that had been captured). A lot of them put up their hands and shouted "Mercy Kamerade". Some of them were waving Red Cross and white flags, and, as they passed us, they were relieved of any valuables that they possessed, souveniring the enemy being a strong characteristic of the Australians. One German ran out of a shell hole to me and handed me his watch, which on the spur of the moment I took, but was afterwards sorry for taking it, because I felt if ever I was taken prisoner I would not like my watch to be taken from me.
I came across several of our men badly wounded (some with legs, arms &c off,) but the way they bore their pain was wonderful – no complaining or grumbling. It was a frequent sight to see a wounded German and a wounded Aussie helping each other to get to the advanced dressing station. A shell burst near us and a piece cut through my puttee and made a small flesh wound as big as a sixpence. It was hardly worth taking notice of and it eventually healed up, but afterwards gave me a lot of trouble, breaking out, as it was poisoned, and I had a lot of hospital in France and England with it. It still breaks out occasionally and I receive a war pension for it.
By now I had lost my section, in fact had got quite away from my Battalion, which I could tell by the various distinguishing marks (generally coloured patches on the backs of our tunics) that each Battalion wore. In my endeavours to find my battalion I got bogged in a small swamp (where there were many others – some of them wounded too – bogged). However, I managed to free myself and found my battalion again.
During all this time we were gradually advancing, and shell fragments and machine gun and rifle bullets were flying all around us. When one considers the amount of material that is hurled about in a small space in a battle, it is surprising to see the number of soldiers who come out alive and unwounded.
At last we reached our objective and on looking at my watch found it was now 9 a.m. – three hours since the attack commenced, but it didn't seem that long. Ours was the second or middle objective, the 41st