The Archive · 1916

Some Unpleasant Sights

We got up, meeting several of Cary's section wounded on the way, one man with half his face in rags of red flesh, and one with his hand hit, and then just ae I got on top, " man horribly gashed and cut about—a pleasing Sunday sight, I assure you. When I got on top I found Cary behind " rock and heard he had lost five men out of eighteen in his section up there. T saw also we were fifty yards from the German fort and had no cover beyond an upsloping ridge of rock which just kept the bullets off us. Five minutes later Cary's ear and went through it just above the lobe and stunned him for ten minutes. I thought he was gone and took command. J had a white colour sergeant with me who had only just arrived from home two days before. rifles and maxims. It is a weird sound that of bullets going by and over you, ® sort of burn and hiss combined, quite devilish and angry it sounds, and I had very little use for it. We lay out there the whole day in the sun and jolly hot it was too, and every ten minutes they would start firing again and our men would cautiously crawl along and raise their heads and fire at the loopholes. I saw one of the men I had sent to the right slowly rising to fire, he got up half-way, let off his rifle and then before he could get down he had two bullets in his direction; one hit the rock an inch to his right and one gave him s face wound and nearly laid bim out.. I saw him later, sitting behind a rock nursing himself and bleed ing like " stuck pig. We were there until dark and then had to come down.

By then we had lost thirteen meo between us of killed and wounded, three being killed and one or tro died since. We started down at 6.30 just as it was getting darker; the road wae appalling. I cane down more than half the way sit ing down on the end of my spine. Five minutes down the Germans were on the top where we had come from and as it was quite impossible not to make a noise they heard us and let fly ae we came down, but luckily hit no one at all. We got down at last and arrived at 1 safe place at 10.30 p.m. only. Then we found the rest of the Com pany and heard we had to stay out the whole night. We lay down and my cook came and found us and fed us with some cold stuff, The mot quitees that night were very trying and we had to move again at 6m. so I slept in all two hours, I should think. The whole of the next day. the 9th, we spent out there fooling around and eventually ware role and bed ut 3 am. more dead than ed at 11 p.m., and got cam]

alive. bullet hit WTHOUTFuRE:

Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.

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