BETWEEN SHELL-BURSTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 231, 18 June 1918, Page 6

BETWEEN SHELL-BURSTS

SCRAPS FKOM SOLDIERS' LETTERS. " . . ... Sonio miles to tho south Fritz was giving poor old Amiens , It was a beautiful night, and we stood there on the road and watched the show for about an hour. About twenty Gotlnis passed roaring overhead, making south to be 1 in at the slaughter. Poor Amiens! _Itis a grand city. I've been there. Every bomb that is dropped is meant for civilians. Thousands are surg. mg out of the place, going God knows where, with what they can carry; thousands more are crouching in cellarswomen, children, and the aged (all ablebodied men are with the colours). . And there we stood at midnight ami watched it, the continual, pitiless 'Wollop! Wallop! of tho big Gotha bombs, and the flash in the sky of the 'Archies' hitting back. The late Messrs. Hannibal and Alexander and other old-timo rough-house experts, who were considered good in their day, would sit up and take notico if they could see old Bill Hiiuleubeggar when he is producing picturesque ruins. . . . After we had seen each other back to ■ each other's billets about six times or more; had reviewed the past and planned the future, I caught a 'buckshee' gharrie, and got a lift back at 2.30-a.m.

.".... To-day old Picardy is looking picturesque for the first time for a week. The first rose I see I'm going to pounce on 'pour le souvenir'—haven't seen one yet. '''ell that she harbours unjust suspicions agin 11s, viz., that wo were not loyal to the New Zealand girls. They are like everything else from tho good Digger Isle, absolutely the fairest and sweetest. One feels like roverently bumping one's head in the dust when one thinks of dear old New Zealand mothers and daughters. . . . I'm orderly dog to-day. The i*cst are out 011 a route march, (he battalion pipers doing a wee bit skirl in the front of the column in kills. "... Old Chilli;'. Mackenzie was over here (in France) the other day, but I did not seo him. The old hero' absolutely insisted on going down to the front lines, though they tried hard to head him off—tho old war-horse going back to have a snilV of powder. Old 'Mac. (tho blind son of Sir Thomas Mackenzie) is something to be proud of. . . . Our guns aro all out. at present kicking up a great old shindy. The colonel missed it last night. A shell upset him and his horse into .a shell-holo—it was a dijty night, and they were shelling the cross-roads. " . . . . AY'e have of late been rubbing shoulders with the French for the first time. They are a fine set of men. Tim idea of the French being an effeminate crowd is quite washed out. Last night a crowd of French played some Tummies in the next paddock (soccer), and beat 'em. They were physically a great deal bettor men limn tiie Tommies lliey wero up against."