May 21, 1918
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More excitement to write of and surely unique. As my last entry shows, I turned in just before 10 p.m. and had hardly been 10 minutes between the blankets when enemy aircraft came over and I could hear some of our chaps discussing them as they were fired at but I was too tired to go and look myself. Then I heard one man say; “Here he comes now and is going to drop his eggs” said jokingly but it was only too true. Within a few seconds there was a tremendous explosion followed by five others at rapid intervals, and the place was full of dirt and brick dust and shaking as by an earthquake.
For a few seconds it was impossible to light a match, then I lit a candle and groped my way into the next room which was fitted up for dressings, and I could hear men calling out, if anyone was hit. Once more we were extremely lucky as only one man was killed, Joe Saunders, an original man, and four others wounded besides numerous abrasions, not serious enough to be evacuated. He had attacked our building direct, dropping three one side and three the other, about 10 paces between each.
The third fortunately missed the building which was packed with men, dropping 3 ft. from the side and made a hole over sixteen feet wide and about ten feet deep, smashing in all windows and doors of the building besides tearing the wall itself about. The fourth dropped right into a cottage the Dentist was using, and razed it to the ground, the fifth and sixth hit the road. The smoke and dust rolled up as from a fire, and it was several minutes before one could see, even with a light.
We dressed the wounded and sent them off, then hunted the men into the fields for safety and evacuated our building. About 1 a.m. I turned in again, but this time under the balmy moon, as we had had enough of buildings for a time. A merciful Providence surely watched over us as the narrow escapes were many. The Colonel then decided that the open field was best, so next day I had the same old routine of packing up and shifting to the M.D.S. It was heartbreaking and I was deadbeat by the end of the day which was hot enough for an outback heatwave.
By 8 p.m. all my things were transferred and then I had to fix up a possy for the night. This I did in company with the others, as there being no tents or buildings we had to dig in and make bivouacs in the open amongst the growing corn. I slept well despite all troubles, however. I can quite understand civvies being terrorised by bombing attacks, it being nerve-racking even for soldiers to have bombs dropping in such away, worse, of course, in our case as we had had our fair issue from the morning’s shelling.