(On this day in 1914, Labor leader Andrew Fisher declared Australians will defend Britain 'to our last man and our last shilling'.)
Nothing very striking happened all day, except SOS in the evening, which seems a daily occurrence. As usual, Boschie threw a few scattered shell over and our 8-inch seemed to give him a fair bit in return. One man of the 48s was wounded in the leg with a piece of shrapnel during the afternoon (Fitter Wing).
Letter Home
Dear Mother
I am taking the opportunity of writing when circumstances permit, as we are living rather a strenuous time just now. Before I forget, many thanks for your letters received yesterday, in which Uncle Chester had just arrived, and please thank Aunt Bet for her nice letter. As far as I can gather, our letters seem to be young newspapers and I hope they are not looked upon too seriously as, in the heat of the moment, one may appear to exaggerate things, especially to anyone who has not been out here.
Well, here we are in action in the old German support line, having moved into action on Tuesday. I am now attached to the 71s, as there was not room in our position for six guns, so we are (or we were) an 8-gun battery. The sight one looks upon here is, I should think, one of the most remarkable that one could see, but I am afraid I can't explain things to you by letter as censors are extra strict down here. To begin with, we have come in for the music without the entertaining part of the show so to speak, as Bosche has now had time to get his heavy guns together. We have hundreds of guns piled on each other, from 18-pounders to 12-inch howitzers, and the amount of heavy stuff we send over is extraordinary. Boschie also gives us plenty of hits and very seldom do you see anything lighter than a 4.2 howitzer - it is usually 8-inch stuff. Whenever I see the big 'uns bursting, I always think of the last words of old Mr Gray. Well I wish he could see the 17-inch, which fires on a village to the rear of us. When it bursts, a cloud of smoke ascends about 300 feet and it looks like a bush fire you see at the end of the lake in the forest. It got a direct hit on a 9.2 howitzer on Friday, putting it out of action and wounding two of the detachment. We have two splendid German dugouts to go to ground in when the air becomes a bit stuffy with Bosche shells and, although it faces the wrong way, one feels very comfortable inside on occasions. On our second day in we had a few over and went to ground for two and a half hours. When it was finished, we found two of the 71 guns were knocked out and a shell had landed in one of their pits, also in one of mine. We each lost about 35 rounds and mine was smouldering when I was looking round, but none of it blew up. There is a lot to be done here in the way of shooting and a field battery averages about 1,000 a day. A battery of 9.2 howitzers behind must average about 300 a day or even 400 and, as there are simply crowds of others doing the same, one can imagine what things are like here. Well, I don't think there is anything else I can put on paper and I will write whenever the opportunity comes but I am afraid you will have to put up with some service postcards as circumstances do not often permit letter writing at present.
Bee is well and we are both sitting up and taking nourishment. I am glad to hear you are all keeping well.
Ever your loving son,
Walford.
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