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[Page 13]
front of a battery of six inch Howitzers perhaps 50 yards in front, and I noticed as each of the guns were fired in succession the projectile could be seen by watching the muzzle closely to leap from it into space, but the eye very quickly lost it. It is somewhat puzzling to the mind to realise that a huge projectile sometimes a ton or so in weight, and over a foot in diameter, cannot be seen in flight. At night-time I have watched their meteoric passage at times by catching a glimpse of the burning spark of the fuse, but that is rare.
After marching about 2 miles we turned off the road into a field and here I became first aware of the intensity of the shell fire. Previously I had not had time to explore much, but on this field the evidence was glaringly apparent. At the side of the road a battered plow and in the soil inverted but struggling to grow were some turnips or beets as a testimony to its peaceful use, but now! Utter desolation scored and pitted. No square inch of its surface not turned up. Crossed and recrossed by trenches and saps littered with a confusion of barbed wire insulated telephone wire, shell cases, pieces of shell and shrapnel bullets. Apart from these shells which had broken upon explosion as they are required to do, a step could not be taken without passing a shell case which had merely discharged its shrapnel contents ahead without bursting. This field of battle was weeks old and the grass struggling to assert itself. Glancing into a shell hole some feet deep, I noticed in the clear water at the bottom a skull.
Shortly we entered the reserve trench in which we were to remain for orders. The operation of relieving the troops then in charge took some time owing to the narrowness of the trench, we having to squeeze ourselves against its damp sides while they pushed past. Except in dryer places there was about a foot of wet slush in the bottom which had to be ploughed through. A man's native susceptibilities had to be deadened by the effect of walking over the dead body of some poor Tommies
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