August 13, 1918
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Coming home last night we had the wind up to a certain extent by the huns being overhead and bombing rather thoroughly. Dozens of searchlights were searching for him overhead and we could hear his engine plainly, and there were we walking along the street of the place we expected him to bomb. Altho’ outwardly calm we were all ready to dive for the first hole on the sound of a dropping bomb.
However he passed overhead and dropped his load a couple of miles further on, the bursts being plainly seen as a fountain of fire, a very pretty sight to us. As he flew back to his lines he used his machine gun freely, the bullets, tracer, being like red-hot stones flying through the air. The C.O. received his orders at midday and I was given the ‘good oil’ so that I could prepare for it. I prepared a requisition to cope with 2,000 odd casualties as our division have a rough piece to cut out including Chaulnes.
The remainder of the Ambulance joined us at 4 p.m. and after tea all marched out for Caix, a distance of about 9 miles, where we camped for the night in some old trenches. For hours the huns were over raiding, but did not drop anything in our immediate vicinity. I came up in a car with my dispensary equipment and on the way up passed the 12 inch naval gun captured by us.
It was on the railway and had been marked by the 31st Battalion as their capture, but their brand had been painted out and ‘Captured by Australia’ painted on in large letters, quite a lot of hun ammunition was about, but very few bodies, the majority having been buried. During the night I was informed that two cars were at my disposal to get more dressings with.