Letters from John Hardie to his family, 1917-1918 - Part 2

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back. but all the same I think Fritz got
the worst of the business. At anyrate
the Officers seemed to think that the raid
was a success from a Military point of
view.
On March the 5^th Fritz seemed to be getting
rather angry for all day long he shelled
this sector. Next Night the 6^th things were very
unhealthy until midnight. I happened to
be standing with my ration party outside
the cookhouse getting our loads ready for
the transfer to the line, when over comes
one ^of the finest xx assortment of gass shells
and H.Es. They just skimmed over us and"also the cookhouse, but nobody got hit
for a wonder. Just as things were beginning
to calm down a stray shell found its
way to a dump of heavy barrels which we
call flying pigs. The distance of this dump
was about 150 yards from us, so you can
imagine what the concussion was like
The earth seemed to fairly rock for several
moments. Still our luck still held, not a
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single person was hit with the flying
fragments which was simply marvelous
considering how the iron rained down
all around us.
On March the 7th we were shelled continuously
all day long, and when we were doing the last
trip with the rations that night the shells
fell all round us. several blew up the
trolly line just behind.
I forgot to mention that the authorities
expect the enemy to make an attempt
shortly to break our linehere and try to
reach the coast. This I consider a matter
of impossibility after seeing the way
the countryside is fortified. The guns stand
almost wheel to wheel and there are
several lines of them, all well concealed.
Also there are machine guns built into
solid concrete everywhere and at several
places there are large dugouts where it is
possible to hide Battalions of Soldiers.
One of these places is called the Cat-a-comb
and really is like a city under ground
 

8
Late on the night of the 7th we were relieved by
the 21st Battalion and went back several
miles to our old camp not far from
Armentieres. We are now supposed to be
going back to a place near Boulonge for
a long spell away from the line.
You see although we are out of the extreme front
line we are still constantly shelled, in fact
the big shells land miles further beyond
and the enemy planes bomb every other
night. Our camp here is situated about
half a mile from a very large ammunition
dump. Altogether it covers about twenty acres
that is including railway lines and
trolley lines. You can get anything here
from a rifle bullet to a fifteen inch shell
and ^in one part of the yard the eighteen pounder
shells are stacked up fifteen feet high.
Every night the light train takes a full
load of iron rations up to dead-horse-corner
from where it is distributed to the different
Batteries. I forgot to mention that I have
spent several days on this dump before
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entering the line doing guard duty
and had the pleasure of being shelled, but
as Fritz was shooting worse than ever
everything passed off alright.