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2181. Corpl. G. Kemball
Extract from letter dated August 13th 1916
After leaving the hospital came the chase after the
battalion! I went by train to ------ & had four hours to
wait there, thence to ------ once again, the transport were
lying just behind ------ & I stayed with them for the
two days I told you I was resting, from there I went straight
into Hell, the battalion were in reserve in ------
from thence we moved up into support just in front of ------
& after two days there, into the front line in High Wood -
otherwise ------ - phew! We were up there for
just a fortnight, in the three positions I mean, all told, good
old 51st, no glory, but damned hard and risky work, consolidating
the positions gained as the papers say! it doesn't look
much in print, but my God, I'd sooner go "over the bags" any
day, every night we were groping about in "no man's land" digging
advanced trenches & saps ready for the next move and on
reconnoitring patrols – crawling about on hands & knees,
finding out where "Fritz" had dug himself in. On several
occasions we ran into him on the same game, result – an
exchange of bombs & oaths & a scuttle for your own lines
before they found you with their machine guns. If you could
take one of their party back with you, so much the better! We
managed it one night & they're just as fed up as we are, say
we don't know what it is to be under a bombardment!!!
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