In other words the soil was almost impervious so that once
a well had been emptied it would not fill up again for days.
For this and several other reasons we reported the necessity for large
mobile water purification units, which could take the water from
larger bodies of water such as ponds, creeks, canals or rivers, purify
it, and deliver it filtered and sterilized into the water carts or
tanks. Such a system was subsequently adopted by the war office and is
now in general use in the British Armies.
One hot morning in mid June we received a telegram from the Surgeon
General to investigate a water supply complained of in the Festubert
region. A premonition seized me that I was going to be killed, for the
battery to be visited was in a very "unhealthy" spot. So I made a new
will, and wrote a letter of farewell, to be posted in case of
accident.
The battery was found nestling in the midst of an orchard, but the
M.O. who knew all about the water supply, was not to be found.
Reluctantly I accepted from the Colonel an invitation to dinner, for
the feeling was still strong in me that some danger was impending.
Half-way through dinner there came the well-known scream of an
approaching shell, which burst at the other end of the orchard. A
second shell burst a little closer; a third came closer still, and a
fourth rained shrapnel on the roof; all the others, with one
exception, fell short, and the shelling was over for the time.
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