Ammunition Going Through a Somme City




AN INTRODUCTION MAINLY ABOUT SCOUTS

I am a scout; nature, inclination, and fate put me into that branch of
army service. In trying to tell Australia's story I have of necessity
enlarged on the work of the scouts, not because theirs is more
important than other branches of the service, nor they braver than
their comrades of other units. Nor do I want it to be thought that we
undergo greater danger than machine-gunners, grenadiers, light
trench-mortar men, or other specialists. But, frankly, I don't know
much about any other man's job but my own, and less than I ought to
about that. To introduce you to the spirit, action, and ideals of the
Australian army I have to intrude my own personality, and if in the
following pages "what I did" comes out rather strongly, please remember
I am but "one of the boys," and have done not nearly as good work as
ten thousand more.

I rejoice though that I was a scout, and would not exchange my
experiences with any, not even with an adventurer from the pages of B.
O. P. [1] Romance bathes the very name, the finger-tips tingle as they
write it, and there was not infrequently enough interesting work to
make one even forget to be afraid. Very happy were those days when I
lived just across the road from Fritz, for we held dominion over No
Man's Land, and I was given complete freedom in planning and executing
my tiny stunts. The general said: "It is not much use training