Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 279
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[Page 279]
we get shelled, & what with the machine guns, one can hardly imagine, how men get through it. I got through as far as the hindenburg line, or as I should say on the brink, when "Bang" right at my side, & down I went like a wet sock, I then felt to see if my leg was still there, & there it was as large as life, but trembling & throbbing like anything, so I crawled to the nearest shell-hole & layed there for about half an hour, till the bearers arrived, & back I went.
I got carried for miles, from one dressing station to another, & I might tell you that this is the time when stretcher bearers do work.
Well Albert I got wounded on the 3rd & I was, large as life in England on the 5th, so that is some going, isn't it.
I came across the channel from Boulogne, to Dover via Folkestone, in King Albert's Royal Yacht "Peter de Conick" [Hospital Ship, Pieter de Coninck"] which was the first hospital ship to be armed, & she is also painted like a battleship, & she is also fast, doing 27 knots.
Well Albert old boy, I might have a chance of getting back to Australia now, but it is a hard thing to say until my wound heals up & the Nurses think it will be two or three months at the least; but I am going to try hard, for I wouldn't like to spend another winter in france, for it is something awful.
I won't you to tell Miss Robertson that I received her Cigarettes the day before the charge, so will you thank