We camped there until 2 o'clock next morning.
Then we all heard there was a big fight coming off, so we all
got together and cleared the field for action. [The letter
mentions the numbers of men engaged, and states that the
Germans were in the proportion of three to one.] We cut them
down like rats. We could see them coming on us in heaps and
dropping like hail. The Colonel passed along the line and
said, "Stick it, boys."
I tell you, mother, it was awful to see your own comrades
dropping down--some getting their heads blown off and others
their legs and arms. I was fighting with my shirt off. A piece
of shell went right through my shirt at the back and never
touched me. It stuck into a bag of earth which we put between
the wheels to stop bullets.
We were there, all busy fighting, when an airship came right
over the line and dropped a bomb, which caused a terrible lot
of smoke. Of course, that gave the Germans our range. Then the
shells were dropping on us thick. We looked across the line
and saw the German guns coming toward us. We turned our two
centre guns on them and sent them yards in the air. I reckon I
saw one German go quite twenty yards in the air.
Just after that a shell burst right over our gun. That one got
me out of action.
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