Shells of heavy
calibre were falling on all sides, and we made for the
Convent by the Lille gate, by a circuitous route--round by
the Infantry Barracks. We dumped our packs in this Convent,
where there were still one or two of the nuns who had
decided to face the shelling rather than leave their old
home.
"We were sorted up into parties. Our job was to carry barbed
wire and ammunition up to the Hill. I was first on the
barbed-wire party; there were about fifty of us and we
collected the 'knife-rests' just outside the Lille gate, and
proceeded up the railway cutting. Shells were falling fairly
fast, as indeed they always seemed to along this cut. At
last we got our knife-rests up by the Hill and dumped them
there. Fortunately we had very few casualties. We started to
go back, but, half-way, we were stopped at the Brigade
Headquarters, a badly damaged barn, and were told that we
had to make another journey with bombs. We were just getting
a few of these bombs out of the barn when the Boches landed
three shells right on top of it. Many of our men were laid
out, but we had to leave them and try to get as much
ammunition out as possible. The barn soon caught fire, and
this made the task a very dangerous one indeed. Every minute
we were expecting the whole lot of ammunition to go up, but
our officer had already taken a watch on it and gave the
alarm just a few seconds before the whole building went
clean up into the air.
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