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back and two were killed and several wounded. That night I was one of a covering party for a fatigue which was digging trenches. The next afternoon a German 'plane flew over (while our 'planes were away) and discovered where we were camped, although we had camouflaged our "possies" with green bushes &c. He signalled to his artillery by means of lights, and for two hours we were subjected to a dreadful bombardment, many being killed. About six o'clock he ceased shelling and we emerged from our dugouts to get some tea. As soon as we did he sent over his last salvo of shells, which were whizz bangs, and which I am sorry to say killed one of the best pals I ever had (Private Allan Tanner of Chinchilla, Queensland). He was standing up about ten yards from me holding his dixie of stew, and just about to enter his dugout, when a shell burst near us, portion of the shell flying up and piercing his steel helmet and going through his head. He was killed instantly. We buried him in Bonnay Military Cemetery and a cross was erected on his grave.
On Friday 19th April at dark we marched to the front line again and took over a sector near Corbie – the twin towers of the Corbie church being easily seen from our trenches. Went out on patrol that night. Next day was quiet and uneventful, but at midnight another chap and myself were detailed to go to the 44th Battalion on our left, report "all well" on the right (where we were) and bring back word to our officer whether the 44th was alright or not. I may here say that we weren't holding a continuous front line, but a series of posts from one hundred to two hundred yards apart and we used to keep in touch with each other by patrolling between the posts. My mate was a Queensland bushman and said he knew his way and wouldn't get lost, so off we started. After falling in many shell holes and over several dead Australians we reached a machine gunners' post and they gave us the right direction to go. We eventually reached the 44th Battalion post, reported "all well", found that they were alright and started back to our own post. But a heavy fog was now on us and the moon had also gone down. We kept on walking too much in one direction in nomansland without finding our trench. The German very lights seemed to be going up all around us and we were afraid that we would walk into the German trenches. Heard some voices, which proved to be a German patrol. We lay down and kept very quiet and the next few minutes seemed an eternity and we were very windy as we thought we would be discovered and taken prisoners. However, they crept past us (only a few yards away) without seeing us, and our luck was in. After waiting for a good while to make sure that they were a good way off, we started on our way again and eventually found our trench and our hearts were light once more. Our officer thought that we had been taken prisoners because we had been over two hours away, whereas had we not got lost, we could have done it in half an hour.
Next day (Sunday) was quiet with the exception of the great airfights that day in which the great German aviator Baron Von Richoften was shot down. We often used to see him and his 'planes