Ten cars were ordered immediately to Audricq, where a large ammunition dump had been set on fire by a Boche airman.

Heavy explosions continued at intervals all the morning as one shed after another became affected.

When our cars got there the whole dump was one seething mass of smoke and flames, and shells of every description were hurtling through the air at short intervals.  Several of these narrowly missed the cars.  It was a new experience to be under fire from our own shells.  The roads were littered with live ones, and with great difficulty the wheels of the cars were steered clear of them!

Many shells were subsequently found at a distance of five miles, and one buried itself in a peaceful garden ten miles off!

A thousand 9.2’s had gone off simultaneously and made a crater big enough to bury a village in.  It was this explosion that had shaken our huts miles away.  The neighbouring village fell flat like a pack of cards at the concussion, the inhabitants having luckily taken to the open fields at the first intimation that the dump was on fire.

The total casualties were only five in number, which was almost incredible in view of the many thousands of men employed.  It was due to the presence of mind of the Camp Commandant that there were not more; for, once he realized the hopeless task of getting the fire under control, he gave orders to the men to clear as fast as they could.  They needed no second bidding and made for the nearest Estaminets with speed!  The F.A.N.Y.s found that instead of carrying wounded, their task was to search the countryside (with Sergeants on the box) and bring the men to a camp near ours.  “Dead?” asked someone, eyeing the four motionless figures inside one of the ambulances.  “Yes,” replied the F.A.N.Y. cheerfully—­“drunk!”

The Boche had flown over at 3 a.m. but so low down the Archies were powerless to get him.  As one of the men said to me, “If we’d had rifles, Miss, we could have potted him easy.”

He flew from shed to shed dropping incendiary bombs on the roofs as he passed, and up they went like fireworks.  The only satisfaction we had was to hear that he had been brought down on his way back over our lines, so the Boche never heard of the disaster he had caused.

Some splendid work was done after the place had caught fire.  One officer, in spite of the great risk he ran from bursting shells, got the ammunition train off safely to the 4th army.  Thanks to him, the men up the line were able to carry on as if nothing had happened, till further supplies could be sent from other dumps.  It was estimated that four days’ worth of shells from all the factories in England had been destroyed.

An M.T. officer got all the cars and lorries out of the sheds and instructed the drivers to take them as far from the danger zone as possible, while the Captain in charge of the “Archie” Battery stuck to his guns; and he and his men remained in the middle of that inferno hidden in holes in their dug-out, from which it was impossible to rescue them for two days.