Diary of Alexander Sutherland Mackay, 5 March 1918 - 7 September 1918 - Part 3

Buildings worthy of note.

28/5/18 } Three last days of our spell out

29/5/18 }  It has been delight delightful this

30/5/18 }  trip, the men all got a great deal

& thoroughly realized it.  We are off

early into the morning.  From all accounts

we will have two days journey on the

road &then into Action.  Im afraid its

going to be a hot posie, but practically 

all the front is hot now Fritz is going.

However, I'm tipping he will get

particular hell, notwithstanding his

unavoidable successes in places.  The

Americans are now fairly strong &we

have a (hell of a large ) number in reserve.

31^st May 1^st June 1918  We arrived at our new Wagon

Lines after two days on the road.  We had

a great journey &no mishaps bar two fellows

jumping off the limbers &getting the wheels

over their feet.  The roads were very dusty

but the country looked perfect.  We came

through the outskirts of Amiens, where

they have the beautiful Cathedral.  Amiens

is deserted as far as we could see, streets

of shops &offices all closed up, not a

soul about.  He shells &bombs this city

a good deal.  The Cathedral looked OK

from the distance but I hear has been

knocked about considerably.  Our

Wagon Lines are about 6 kilos away.

We are off to the guns in the morning.

2^nd June  Arrived at the posie about 11 am.

we are well back, shooting at about 5000.

The dugouts are not bad, but little

protection if he starts an area shoot

with big stuff.  Glorious weather, quite

warm during the day.

3/4/5/6 June.  All these days have been

fairly quiet, so far the shells have been

lobbing in front &behind us.  He strafes

Corbie, a village on left rear flank

a treat.  Villers Bretonneux in front

to the right, is another pet dumping

ground for him.  No gas on the

programme thank goodness &the only

time his aeroplanes get a chance is

at night, in the day time ours are

like bees &don't allow him a minute

to come over.  It is exceptionally bright

this morning & I see he has a balloon

up directly in front of our sector.

There is a string of our Balloons at

the back, so there is not too much

activity of a day, both sides lie low.

We have a French Howitzer Battery

alongside of us, they have great dugouts

to sleep in, about 30 feet down.

7/8 June 1918.  Two good days although

last night for about 20 minutes, things

were a bit lively.  He began to drop shells

too close for pleasantness &made a scatter.

However nobody was hurt &he changed

his angle &range.  Little goes on of a 

daytime, mostly night &early morning.

Observation getting poor again, owing to

cloudy weather so there is little air activity.

9^th June Exceptionally hot weather today, the 

same heat in Aussie would be a cert. for

a storm.  A good deal of firing on both sides

took place last night, our Heavies

especially, appeared to be put out over

something, they were barking a treat.

Fritz sent over a bit of gas, but

not sufficient on our posie to make

us don masks.  He sent a few shells

over this morning & appeared to be

searching.  However he didn't risk

too much of it, as our Aeroplanes were

fairly thick up, observing.

10/13 June.  Goods days, beautiful weather &

little shelling on our position.  Raids go on

practically every night but nothing of any

magnitude.  One section of our Battery (2 guns)

has been shifted to a fresh posie about

2 kilos away.  They intend shifting another

section in a day or so.  They appear all

prepared for Fritz to strike.  He has had

small gains here &there along the line, but

in every case he has had to pay for it.  In

many instances counter attacks regained our

positions so his losses were in vain.

The Froggies are doing great work, &from

all accounts the Americans are no duds.

they are making names for themselves.

Our aeroplanes are very active &undoubtedly 

hold supremacy of the air.  In the daytime

if its bright, its a rare sight to see

Fritz over our lines, he hasn't a chance

they have him well muzzled.  Got two

parcels last night, one from Leslie &another

from the Queensland Comfort Funds.  Ive

a great stock of socks & toothbrushes on hand,

no letters, but now parcels have arrived, there

should be some floating around.

14/15/16 June.  Our luck still in during these

days, no shells too near to do damage

Beautiful Weather with Wind continually

blowing towards Fritz's line thereby lessening

the danger of gas.  Saw a great air fight

this afternoon. Two of our planes chased one

of Fritz's right over his line.  They eventually

got him brough bringing him an

awful gutzer.  About an hour afterwards

a Fritz plane sneaked across & brought

boot down one of our Balloons on our

right flank.  He made no bloomer,

it came down a mass of flames.  Although

an enemy, one couldn't help admiring the

plane's pluck.  We watched him run the

gauntlet from our Anti aircraft guns.  They

fired all along but the beggar kept going

& escaped.  We counted 40 odd aeroplanes

of ours, over this front at one time today.

17/6/18.  Air absolutely thick with planes

today, ours are patrolling round in 

squadrons.  A great commotion with

machine guns from our planes awhile ago

informed there was a "box on".  We 

watched some phenomenal flying &then

saw a Fritz chased down in our lines

intact.   As usual, our planes swooped

down& hovered like crows over a dead beast

until they saw the machine captured.

No doubt an air scrap is one of the

most exciting things to watch.

18/19/20 June.  Things livening up a bit.

His shells have been creeping nearer at

times.  A His planes are also showing greater

activity, evidently he has brought a 

number from some other front.  He brought

down a another of our Balloons yesterday &

one of our scouts came a cropper in

his lines.  However our planes still

hold the supremacy of the air.  A couple

of heavy showers fell today (20^th) &observation

is very poor.  They expect his offensive

to open up on this front anyday. This 

is the calm before the storm.  Our

Infantry are very sanguine, he will undoubtedly 

buy dearly for any jokes here.  I sincerely

hope the Italians hang out against the

Austrians, I wouldn't be surprised if the

latter squib if their push ends in

defeat.

19/25 June.  Fritz still hanging off

our people can't understand the delay, as

the longer he hangs off the better it is for us

with the Americans coming to light everyday.

Our posie is still quiet, he shells the ridge

just in front of us &sends the rest overhead

to the villages &big guns behind.  Only hope

he keeps it up.  No gas so far, the wind

is generally in our favor blowing towards

his lines.  Yesterday morning an airscrap

took place practically over the guns between

one Fritz & one British machine.  Fritz came

off best but did not destroy the machine

Our fellow flew down &landed his machine

intact, he had four bullets through the

shoulder &one through the jaw, just a

good Blighty from all accounts.

Very cloudy weather these days so little

observation.  We are buliding building a great

dugout here about thirty to forty feet down

with 2 entrances, it will also be gasproof.

In there when completed, one would be

pretty safe if Fritz bombarded his hardest.

We are all wondering if it will be

completed before Fritz starts his joke.

At present, we have little protection against

5.9's & 8 inch shells, if which he will

undoubtedly fling over, if he starts an

area shoot.  I might say he gets more

than one pellet both light &heavy, from

this side during the day &night - chiefly

during the latter period.

26/27 June.  Two very bright days, we have

been shooting a good deal &sending over a 

lot of gas these two nights.  Little doing

during the day.  Fritz livened up this afternoon

landing about a dozen shells fairly

close.  I left my blankets &overcoat sunning

in some crops, Fritz's shells left their

trade marks, three holes through the coat

& several in the Blankets.  I cursed him

over the coat, it was a Tommy Warner, theyre

hard to get hold of.  Aircraft still active

two of our planes were forced to land this

morning nearby but came down intact

although one of the pilots had several

wounds from machine gun bullets.

28/29/30^th June.  Fritz sends a few over of

a day now just as gently reminders.  He

has been bursting a good few coalboxes overhead

apparently ranging.  He has not introduced 

us to much heavy stuff so far.  Last night

the 29^th, we wakened up owing to his gas.

However it wasn't bad, just enought to

set everybody sneezing.  He had lobbed

his gas shells away to the left, but the

wind carried the fumes down this way.

He must be getting hell from our gas,

both shells & cylinders have been released

on him a lot of late.  He must make

a whack shortly, right along our crowd

are irritat irritating him, raiding here &

there taking a few prisoners, practically asking

him to come on.  Aeroplanes very thick

every night &afternoon.  Its a usual sight

to look up &see 30 to 40 of our planes

hovering round looking for trouble.

Observation has been rather bad owing to

ground mists.  Glorious weather otherwise

1/2/3 July.  These three days have been very

ordinary little shelling &little Aeroplane work

owing to Misty weather.  A stunt on our

part comes off tomorrow morning, so things

will be lively no doubt tomorrow.

4^th July.  The stunt came off at 3 am this

morning & I believe was highly successful,

We were supporting the 4^th Divy who wh

went over.  I hear about 900 prisoners were

taken & 90 machine guns ^besides all &all objectives.

The Village Hamel has been captured

so probably we will shift forward.

They say a number of the Fritzs are

about 15 or 16 years of age, its cruel to see

them.  Our planes are doing marvellous

work, even carting machine gun

ammunition &dropping it in parachutes

to forward machine gunners.  They never

gave Fritz a chance last night, his

machines kept to their kennels.  Fritz

is sending a bit over this morning just

to show his temper, but not as much

as we anticipated.  One of our planes

has fallen. just now, he has evidently 

been hit in a scrap which took

place about 10minutes ago.  A lot of

fellows have gone over, we will hear

the verdict when they return.  Very cloudy

today, but a continual buzz of Aeroplanes

going on, practically all ours protecting

our front lines whilst they are

consolidating last nights gains

5 July.  Last night Fritz was over

bombing.  He dropped three fairly solid

eggs on our position, but missed the

guns & all the dugouts.  He dropped a large

flare before dropping the eggs, it lit up

the whole place.  Our crowd were at the

same game over his lines but from

all accounts he got 10 for every one

dropped here.  The Stunt the other night

was very successful, our fellows on the left

advanced 1½ miles &took Hamel Village.

the number of prisoners now amounts

to 1305 &over 100 machine guns.  He

counterattacked last night, but by the

Barrage our people put up he must have

failed badly.  I believe our boys in front, after

his barrage was over, hopped out &shook

50 more prisoners.  Aeroplanes are not so

active today but no doubt they will be

no on the warpath at dusk.  There are 8

of our Balloons up overhead observing, at this

moment.

6/7/18  Fritz tried to rescue some of his

front back last night again, but the

guns opened out &put him in his place

Quiet otherwise little or no Aeroplane

work during the night.  Yesterday afternoon

late our planes got active we counted

52 over the position.  We only saw

3 of his during the whole day

7/8/9 July 1918.  Three good days for us.  Our guns

have been popping a good deal.  Apparently

Fritz on this sector is absolutely bluffed by our

fellows.  The last two day our boys made

two daylight raids without any Artillery help.

At ordinary times it would be almost suicidal

to do such a thing, but yesterday our pets

simply walked across hooked about 20 prisoners

&stopped in his from line Trench.  Today they.

confiscated another 600 yards.  Our fellows reckon

they had great fun chasing Fritz but A admit

he had too much toe.  Its a regular mystery

Fritz simply turns tail & runs like hell, making

no effort to fight.  Yesterday there were three

shots all told whilst the raid was on.  Whether

he has a poor class of troops on this sector, or

that they are stupefied by the cheek of our

fellows, is hard to say.  I can hardly think

its the former as the critics prophesy he will

do his utmost to get Amiens &to do that

he has to bump against all this front,.

when he makes his next push.

10/11^th July 1918.  Fritz has been turning his

attention to us of late.  The night before

last, I was just going to bunk when plomp

a gas shell a few yards away from our dugout.

He then started flinging some 5.9's & 4.2s for

a change.  For the sake of their health all

hands made a beeline for a big dugout

the Tunnellers have just completed  This place

is about 40 feet down x like a mine the

chamber underneath holds about 60 men.  Once

there you are safe, the difficulty is in getting

there..  I waited until one shell flopped & then

flew for this hole.  I heard another coming & 

expected a lift in the behind the last

few yards but luckily it went overhead.  All
hands are serious enough during these flights

but once safe, there is always a roar of laughter

Perhaps one fellow trying to take too long

a stride will fall &then 3 or 4 behind, fall

over the top of him.  Each of course blames

Fritz &flatters him in his own manner &

language, you hear all these remarks whilst

they are regaining their feet.  Naturally you

enjoy these antics all the more, if you are

watching from a safe posie yourself.  The

beautiful sprints &the way some fellows can

get off the mark would shame many

professional runners.  Our Infantry have

been picking at Fritzs line again, so

we have to shift forward &will probably

move tonight (11^th).  Shifting forward is

always a rotten game, it means an awful 

amount of work for a Battery, digging Gun

Pits, dugouts etc.  However it means ^also that

Fritz has been getting a bit of a bump

so thats one consolation.

12^th & 13^th July.  Only compelled to make two

sprints for the big dugout, during these days

so Fritz has not been much trouble.

The Froggies on our x right sector, were

at it solidly for about 5 hours yesterday

morning their guns were booming incessantly 

We heard they had captured 3 villages

from Fritz but no definite particulars are

yet to hand.  We are pulling out to

a fresh posie instead of going forward,

the left Section leaves tonight, we will

probably get going tomorrow night.  I believe

the new posie is near our previous one.

Hope things have quietened down there, it

was pretty solid last trip.  Being near

a village we were introduced to his

heavy stuff.  8 inch shells are never

welcome companions.  However things may

not be as bad as, we anticipate.

14^th July  We are shifting out tonight

& I can assure all hands regret leaving

here.  Last evening, three of Fritz's planes

came over &brought down two of our Balloons

in flames.  They deserved their win, our

planes came to light about 10 minutes

afterwards.  We were watching the Balloons

& saw the Observers jump in their parachutes

when Fritzs planes got near them.  He

fired the usual luminous tracer bullets &

you could see the Balloons start to burn.

These Balloons are held down by a wire

worked from a windlass on a motor

lorries.  Fritz simply caught our fellows

asleep, the lorry experts made no effort

to hawl their balloons in until too late.

Its a wonder he did not get the lot