Five days after the explosion Gutsie and I were detailed to go to Audricq for some measles cases, and we reported first to the Camp Commandant, who was sitting in the remains of his office, a shell sticking up in the floor and half his roof blown away.

He gave us permission to see the famous crater, and instructed one of the subalterns to show us round.  There were still fires burning and shells popping in some parts and the scenes of wreckage were almost indescribable.

The young officer was not particularly keen to take us at all and said warningly, “You come at your own risk—­there are nothing but live shells lying about, liable to go off at any moment.  Be careful,” he said to me, “you’re just stepping on one now.”  I hopped off with speed, but all the same we were not a whit discouraged, which seemed to disappoint him.

As Gutsie and I stumbled and rolled over 4.2’s and hand grenades I quoted to her from the “Fuse-top collectors”—­“You can generally ’ear ‘em fizzin’ a bit if they’re going to go ’orf, ’Erb!” by way of encouragement.  Trucks had been lifted bodily by the concussion, and could be seen in adjacent fields; many of the sheds had been half blown away, leaving rows of live shells lying snugly in neat piles, but as there was no knowing when they might explode it was decided to scrap the whole dump when the fires had subsided.

We walked up a small hill literally covered with shells and empty hand grenades of the round cricket ball type, two of which were given to us to make into match boxes.  Every description of shell was there as far as the eye could see, and some were empty and others were not.  We reached the summit, walking gingerly over 9.2’s (which formed convenient steps) to find ourselves at the edge of the enormous crater already half filled with water.  It was incredible to believe a place of that size had been formed in the short space of one second, and yet on the other hand, when I remembered how the earth had trembled, the wonder was it was not even larger.

It took weeks for that dump to be cleared up.  Little by little the live shells were collected and taken out to sea in barges, and dropped in mid-ocean.

Not long after that the “Zulu,” a British destroyer, came into port half blown away by a mine.  Luckily the engine was intact and still working, but the men, who had had marvellous escapes, lost all their kit and rations.  We were not able to supply the former, unfortunately, but we remedied the latter with speed, and also took down cigarettes, which they welcomed more than anything.

We were shown all over the remains, and hearing that the “Nubia” had just had her engine room blown away, we suggested that the two ends should be joined together and called the “Nuzu,” but whether the Admiralty thought anything of the idea I have yet to learn!

Before the Captain left he had napkin rings made for each of us out of the copper piping from the ship, in token of his appreciation of the help we had given.