Accounts relating to Herbert Austin Bailey, 1918-1919 - Part 5

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The following day I & a cobber set about making

things a bit more comfy for the coming night

We go into the village of M_ near by & salvage

some timber iron & c & erected a home for ourselves,

inside we have fixed up sets of shelves

drape the side with some tapestry curtains.

two stained glassed panels in front for a bit

of light & a beautifull lace curtain at the entrance

to guard against mosquitos. Some dug out

this when finished . All the material salved

from the ruins near by. The two ends of the

church here are still standing. A rooster as

a wind vane on the top standing defyant to

all Fritz shells up to now, the rest is merely a heap

of rubbish. I'ts really worth the bit of trouble one

goes to, to fix up there dug out if only for a few

nights. Some of our lads, have had so much of

it, & the constant shifting about, that they re get

very neglectfull, crawl into any hole & make

shift & all the time be continually on the growl

about it. There's usually plenty of material

handy & to be had for fetching, It certainly does

seem a pity to use some of the articles & utensils

we do for such a purpose. But what matters

better are them than leave them to rot & be buried.

Anyway I'll keep the mosquitos out if I can, one

got at me the other night on the arm, I awoke

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& had to take the watch off my wrist, he

had puffed my arm up to such an extent the

Blighter. We get on to widening trenches, fixing busted

wire entanglement & much the same old stunt over

again. While wiring one night he put over a few of

his gas shells, & gets one of our men, its a great trick

to try & surprise one with this abomination. And I may

truthfully say that gas is more dreaded by the majority

of men than all the flying shells, shrapnel or bullets

I'ts worst feature is, it has such long standing

effects, a man may possibly be gassed & not know

it for awhile, continue with his work as usual

& suddenly go out to it. A man badly gassed does

not last long. The climattical conditions when he

once gets back to [classie?], is I'm told most fatal.

An whole Section of another Company of Engrs

get a dose more or less severe, & are out of action

for awhile, he put over the gas, they don helmets

all clear given they continue work, in the morning

the sun rising draws the gas off the dewy

grass, & suddenly gets them. But what he

gives as in the way of gas, is as a flea bite compared

to what our guns sends over to him, they give

him perfect hell. I was on the top of this bank

one evening & saw our guns putting over a barrage

c with gas. The deadly stuff could be seen

creeping over the ground like a dense fog

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I now spend the time for awhile with the Company Section to which

I belong & we're occupied at doing various different jobs. Go out some distance

to a Dump get Duck Boards, take & lay them across swamy ground

for greater convenience, ^of travelling cut down trees, or get the nearest available ^timber to form

stayers on which to lay them. Go up river remove a barrel pier bridge

from its present Anchorage, get it adrift & float some distance farther

down stream, roads link it up with the duck board track. All

[?entire line unreadable?]

crossed over that particular spot. He would register fire [by plane?]

or perhaps take a photograph. And neither the track or bridge

would exist long. Assist in making raft with barrels (which we

previously salvage some distance away at some large abandoned

Chemical Works) strong enough to sustain the weight of

heavy Artillery in crossing the river , I have a few days on

these jobs, then leave the section ^& with two or three others go away

& are attached to another Brigade, to fix up & dig some deep

dugouts, considerably nearer to the front line. We tunnel into

a bank drive through some distance taking turns as we [pre?]

[?entire line unreadable?]

[?] makes a nice [deep?] shaft, [?hole in page?] [a billet?], Of course all this

takes some considerable time, the nature of the ground is chalk

& rather shaky & treacherous, timber has to be put in as we

proceed. Men from other detachments are sent with us to wheel

out the soil & assist us with what wants doing, we are driving

into an hill & at the farthest end of the drive it is something

like 30ft below the surface. I had'nt been at it long before I was

awkward enough to get a lump of timber on my nut, & I was

quit out of action for awhile. This is an Headquarters place

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& a doctor is there & the A M C sergeant soon

fixed it up, A nasty cut, but, immediate & proper

attention, things soon got right. After driving

through we now get on to excavating out

numerous rooms, of different sizes, for Headquarters

staff, Orderly room, dressing station,

Wireless & telephone operator & c. Also for the

whole lot that are there to crowd into at any

time Fritz might take it into his head to

Straff the place, & its also made gas proof

Across these rooms we put Iron Girders to

carry the timber & prevent the roof from caving

in, for its surprising the terrific force &

penetrative power modern explosives have

in some soil they might penetrate anything up

to 30 ft. These shelters might possibly be the mens tomb it not

a long way from the surface. These rooms get fixed up very comfortably

with furniture, Drapery & c. that are salvaged

from the abandoned [ajoining?] villages. Fritze's continually

giving this place his [particular?] attention, preventing the

men at times from wheeling out the soil, I'ts remarkable

how well he allways appears to be informed when anything

is being done. The eyes in the air account for a lot of this detection.

Our planes are very busy going over in their Squadrons

attacking & bombing, going through his barrage if Anti

air craft guns quite unconcerned, its remarkable how

few victims they get, excepting for keeping the planes

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well aloft, they appear to have very little effect . If a

plane should manage to get well over an Observation

Balloon. I'ts a bang, flare, & down, The occupant

usually drop in parachutes. theirs is a very

precarious job, for they are at the mercy of

their attackers, While at this place I was an eye witness,

of what would seem to anyone to be a well nigh

impossible task. I'd been working a late shift the

previous evening. (For we kept this job going night & day)

And was turning out the following morning, Two planes

are coming over, flying very low down & only one

appeared to be firing, I got ready to duck, for they

looked to be coming right on to my dugout. The leader

(Ours) came right close (I could allmost have reached

him with a stick) took a sudden turn & dived into the

ground a short distance away, it was on of our

bombing planes, Fritz chased him right down, then

turned about got back [over?] his own lines. All witnesses

appeared so struck & amazed at the daringness

of the whole affair that none though of raising a rifle

Mine was at my finger ends too. I went over to the wreck

of the two occupants. One had 7 bullet wounds & the other

was hit in the jaw. Their gun had jammed , so rendering

them powerless & easy victims. They were semi consious

& could'nt be convinced but that they were in Fritz

hands & prisoners. Fritz too in the excitement of the moment.

I dont suppose realised he was in his enemys

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lines. The plane came down so gradually that

it was practibly intact. He sends us over a

pretty good dose of his gas shells, poluting

the atmosphere, Unless one is caught unawares

we have him pretty well beaten with

his gas. For the Respirators which we all have

will defy any gas that has been invented

up to now. They're not the pleasantest things

to wear, (by any means) for any length of time,

One has to inhale & exhale through the mouth, the

nostrils being kept closed with a clip that's inside

the mask. All vegetation in the vicinity

of a bursting gas shell is perished. And so is

animal life, of which I've seen ample evidence.

The surrounding fields of what should be crops

are churned up with enormous shell holes & in

places killed with fumes. For many miles around

one sees are seen growing ? crops like this, which the

French had previously, toiled for & sown. Short has the

world is for food. This will a poor harvest around here.

Its priciply wheat & rye too. All going to ruin. We fare

very well, have good tucker & plenty of it. The weather

too has been very favourable practically

the whole time I've been here. The greater part of the

country around here is very low lying & a little rain

the whole place is churned up in an horrible mess. We

dont complete this job, but are relieved by another division,

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have ours within the next few days, is going

to the rear for a bit of a spell. So we pack up & get

off back to join up with the Company. Other reinforcements

have arrived in the meantime from Blighty

& the Co consequently has become much larger. Several

of them are men I'd previously know. Others were men

that had been in France before. Our fellows get up some

good Sports & Concerts. Aquatic Sports are often going

on. And to see the fellows Masquerading in

female attire (of which there's plenty to be

got in the different towns & villages) my word

some of them make fine girls & carry the game

out well. The line is not far away but diversions

of this kind makes one forget war

for a little while. We pack up & get on the route

march once more, this time to the rear. Our fellows

from time to time get hold of some interesting

Souveniors, but when one comes to get on the

march for a while, this surplus gear is more often

than not thrown away. One's own equipment & c is

more than sufficient as usual, sometimes part of

that goes too. One has nt to go far these times with

out seeing a Cemetery. Where those less fortunate

than ourselves have been lain. In most instances

they have a Cross or some other Emblem

stating Name. Rank. Reg & c & are generally well

cared for. Our new Camp is in a rather thickly wooded

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district, lying rather low & plenty of streams

running in the neighbourhood. We dig into banks

& different places to make ourselves as comfortable

as possible. We are still well in range of the guns.

Evidence of which one can see in an ajoining

village. In which a very few inhabitants still remain.

Poor Buggars. Very loath to leave their homes.

I suppose if the authorities let them, they would prefer

to die where they have lived. They're risking a lot

by being here anyhow. For Fritz of course has

all towns, villages ^roads maped out & can when he chooses

get the exact range. Consequently its much safer

to be outside. Of course there's no safe places a

chance shot may arrive any time & feelers are

allways being sent accros. Getting to congested or to

many at one particular spot is avoided as much as

possible. And lessens the casualities if any thing does happen.

Recently we have had a few Americans attached

to us, just to see & get into the ways & workings of

things generally. And jolly nice fellow they are too.

It seems so strange to be away from the deafening

rattle & roar, that one has'nt any thing now to lull him

to sleep. His bombing planes get round about sometimes

during the night & make thing lively. The

rattle of the Anti Guns goes on a bit then & the search

light play around. I saw one well in the search

light the other night. Their rays were thrown on him

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from all points & made a thrilling night. the anti's

got their range by the light, but after a while he

climbed out of their rays. From time to time we have

various usual articles handed around that come

through the various different Aussie Comfort

Funds. Tobacco, Cigarettes, Biscuits, Socks & numerous

other articles. There is a weekly allowance of

Tobacco too. Our boys are taking this opportunity

of making up with this delayed correspondence.

I too am just dotting down these few

remarks as they strike my memory, chiefly the whole

thing is only repitition of former statements, & being

so I may possibly have mentioned the same things

over & over again. There are a great number of horses

& mules around here & I guess one would have to

go a long way to see or find a better looking lot of

animals. If even their match could be found in the

world today. They're well fed, groomed, have but very

little to do, plenty of feed everywhere. Some of them are

recovering from gas & have their eyes & c bandaged up.

A great variety of color amongst the mules, & they're real

fine animals. We are still getting nice weather

& being plenty of water in the neighbourhood, the boys

are taking full advantage of it. There are also bathing

parades & one can go & have a hot & cold shower,

change of clothes & c. At time like these its a man's own

fault & neglect if he does'nt keep himself clean

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He can have his bath. Get his clean shirt

& pants from the DiV in return for his dirty ones

This even saves him the trouble of washing his own

Everything in Camp is arranged so as to be as Sanatary

as possible, all old Tins, paper & surplus rubbish is collected

& put into an Incinderator. Lavatory accomodation

is arranged as well as possible under the circumstances.

The living is good & plenty of of it independent

of that. There is a Canteen at which may

be purchased as allmost endless variety or articles.

All has a tendency to make ones lot as good as

possible under the circumstances. We have various

different little jobs to do while here, to help relieve

the monotony. I with several others go & salvage

some timber from houses that have been smashed

by shells & fix up a Concert hall in what was

a old barn. He sends a shell or two over now & again

to remind us that there's still a war on. Mostly shrapnel,

which bursting in the air & scattering bullets over

a big area, he may possibly get a victim. Some of our

Observation Balloons are in the vicinity & he may

possibly get one of them. Most nights the bombing

planes, get somewhere around or over this locality

The Camp itself puts one much in mind of a rabbit

warren, the majority of us are dug in, Those that are

in the few tents (& tents are allmost obsolete now with aircraft

about there'n to conspicuous) have to be Camolflaged