Into the Unknown by Ian Trafford

Author:Ian Trafford [Trafford, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143775133
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

6 September, 1918.

I am detailed to leave immediately to follow our quickly advancing lines as billeting NCO for my platoon. I start away with two comrades, passing through devastated Haplincourt, then bear to our right and out into a huge, open, fertile plain, stretching ahead for miles. Fritz has erected long lines of strong barbed wire, dozens of yards wide. All along the route he has been busy cutting and properly disorganising every telephone line.

We meet a YMCA man heading down. Much to our amusement, he is on service leading a group of Hun prisoners. They greet us and seem to be happy and no bother. Another three batches of prisoners pass by.

Somewhere in the direction of Barastre, we find the 29th Hawkes Bays, who we are to relieve. The three leading platoons will be in the trenches, and we of 16 in much-knocked-about huts. In one large hut, we find three dead horses, all missing precise cuts of flesh from their rumps.

All around, as far as the eye can see, is Fritz’s strong barbed wire. The pioneers are busy digging support trenches and making a good job of them. Present are two eight-inch guns, capable of firing a two hundred-pound load to twelve thousand yards. A Junkers plane sits nearby where it came down with engine troubles.

I go back to meet our companies at Haplincourt, grab a lime juice and a packet of biscuits from the YMCA, then march the men eight kilos to take over our new quarters. I met Roy Wimsett, who is in the Vickers lot nearby, and, to my surprise, bump into Jack Lloyd — now a sergeant — Rowland Hill and Jack Still, all looking well.

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