Diary of Alexander Sutherland Mackay, 12 October - 7 November 1918 - Part 4

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at all hardly & we have just heard
he is in full retreat. Fortunately for
him it is raining like hell, so our
planes have not much chance of
completing his du alarm. We are
pulling back to the Wagon Lines after
3 oclock this evening - surely this means
our spell at last. Got two parcels ^today
^one from Aunt Belle & one from a Mrs
Elliott through the Queensland Artillery
Funds. Both contained cakes in
splendid condition, three of us settled
the latter one before Breakfast, it
was a beautiful cake. Aunt Belle's
will meet its doom tonight at the
Wagon Lines, hers also contained a scarce
luxury viz sugar & a pair of mittens.
 

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6/11/18. We pulled into the Wagon
Lines last night talk about a
wretched trip. It had been raining
steadily all day & was dark when the
limbers arrived. The slush through
the paddocks to the main road was
simply awful. Eventually we struck
a hard road & all went well barring
some long stops owing the terrific
amount of traffic passing, until
we got in the first village. Here
in a big caterpillar tractor bumped
in the full ammunition wagon I was
on & knocked us clean off the road
into a ditch. The two wheel horses
drivers were knocked down & I
escaped by sliding off the limber
when it capsized. It took sometime

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to get the horses up & then the
tractor pulled the wagon out. After
getting going again another motor
van knocked a G.S Wagon ahead
of us into another ditch. This caused
another hours delay, raining all the
time, but we managed to arrive
at the Wagon Lines about 10 pm
wet through. Luckily we had a
dry tarpaulin to crawl under for
a camp. Reveille was at 4.30 am
this morning & the whole Battery left
for Wiancourt. After getting as
far as Bancourt however, we were
pulled up & billeted there. We were
all soaked through from the rain.
My boots had no soles on hardly
so we were all fairly pleased at
 

 34
the stop, although it probably
means goodbye to our spell. We
are to be held here in reserve.
All hands immediately on arrival
hunted round for billets, four of
us are in a little room in one
house, its not bad & we have a fire
going. We also shook sh some stretchers
from the joint reserved for the officers.
I managed to salvage a pair of dry
boots, first time Ive had dry feet
for about a week, one feels as comfortable
as if he had had a Turkish bath.
7/11/18. Had a nice warm camp
last night & the rain has eased off
today. Very strong rumour today that
the German Heads came over to visit Genl
Fock re ceasing hostilities. We saw a

a paper today with the Austrian Armistice
Conditions imposed. They certainly are
severe & must make Fritz think.
 

35
We heard this afternoon that two
of the Generals came across with the white
flag re an armistice. This was the
signal demanded by our side. Although
we are only came out yesterday, Fritz
is now 22 miles away, so even if they
do take us back it will mean a
couple of days before we can get into
action, & anything may happen in
that time. Our prospects of seeing Aussie
again are now very bright, so time
counts for everything. My name is
going in for leave tomorrow, but
thats only a secondary consideration to
Peace.