Meet Thy Maker

We'll chums it isn't me that has met my maker. Was it any of our lads? No. It was the Hun.

What an almighty blast. The earth shook, the heavens darkened and there was fire and brimstone everywhere. It was the apocalypse. All made by man. Our men, yours truly one of them. A cataclysmic explosion that destroyed all in its reach.

When I left you last night we were busy racing against time to get the mine ready to blow it. We didn't know if the Hun was going to beat us to it or whether we would get there first. Well it was us who won the race.

All last night we prepared for the explosion of the mine. We were on duty all night long and were well armed. If the Hun blew the mine first we would have to repulse him. At about 8:00am our gunners opened up and shelled the German front lines. The Stokes Mortar we had in the Snipers House joined in and mortared the front line.

We were all ordered out of the Houses and into the front line trenches. We were told to open fire on the Huns front lines with everything we had. So we did, we let rip at anything and everything.

The Hun naturally thought we were about to attack and so brought up more men and joined in the volley of firing. This was exactly what our top brass and I must say most if not all of our men wanted. The more Hun that were packed into his front line and his front line houses the more we could send to Kingdom Come.

So the firing, shelling and mortaring continued until a shout went up at about 8:30am. We were then ordered into the bottom of the trench and to take cover. The guns fell silent and then there was this heaving of the ground and a rocking motion followed by a muffled roar that grew louder and then with a blue flame the earth and everything with it was thrown into the air. Mud and bricks showered down into our trenches and quite a few men received injuries from it. Pieces of cloth and dust then floated down and settled everywhere. Whether the cloth was from clothes or sandbags I don't know.

We were all stood in awe and silence as the remnants of this cataclysmic explosion settled to earth. Then a shout went out for us to reoccupy our front houses. We rushed out of the trench and into the houses.

When we arrived we rushed through to the end house and the barricade that we had built there. We peered over the back yard to the German House that was ten yards away. This was still standing as the tunnel we had dug hag gone well pass this into the Hun front lines. We were astonished to see one poor Hun chap who had been blown clear onto the outhouse. Whilst we watched one of his chums brought a ladder and climbed up and took him down. This was right in front of us and any one of us could have shot him but in respect to his bravery we let him be. He knew we were just ten yards away yet he didn't consider his safety and climbed that ladder  in full view of us to retrieve his injured chum. He deserved the biggest medal going.

Later one of our officers said that when the mine went up he saw a group of Hun blown clear into the air with their breakfast, frying pans and stoves. We didn't know whether to believe him or not but certainly we caught the Hun by surprise. He expected a frontal attack instead he got blown away from the earth below.

When we had secured the front houses we were ordered to spread out across the trenches and open fire on the Hun. The entire battalion seemed to be opening fire without a shot being returned by the Hun. The shooting was so one way and was so effective that some of the men came out of the trenches into full view to get a better shot at the poor Hun. So the firing went on for some time until we were told to cease fire.

The Hun must have taken a severe beating. We have no idea how many men had been killed but at about 1:00pm one of our observers saw about 29 men being carried back across the River Lys into Frelinghien. As this was some four and a half hours after the mine went up we assume that the injured were first taken away and then the dead, this latter stretchering of men being some of the dead.

Once the Hun had licked his wounds he started up on us with a rage. This was about 4:00pm. He shelled us with ferocity and venom but his shells did little damage or should I say caused little death or injury. We were expecting it and had tucked ourselves away.

The total casualties we have sustained for this day is one dead and 17 injured, these mainly being from the falling bricks. The Hun must have had dozens of dead and injured.

So chums I bid you goodbye once again. We've given the Hun a bloody nose and he'll think twice about attacking us now. We are over strength in the battalion and he is now far below strength. Its his turn to sit and wonder whether we are going to attack him.

I leave you feeling weary and tired, I know we'll be safe tonight, it'll be some time before the Hun tries anything on.

Albert x