Driver Cecil Barker, younger brother of driver Bram Barker (seven years on J. A. Macdonald’s boats), writing to his mother from France, says, The other evening, during a stunt, I saw a Zep. for the first time. The 3rd division of Australian artillery has made a name, as being the best on this line. Bram and I have plenty of night work, taking fodder up to the steel mouths who spit it out towards Fritz’s trenches. I don’t know how Fritz is getting on further down the line, but up our way he is getting a fair doing, and, according to reports, it won’t be long before the other side are well on the run and we are further into Belgium than at present. When the guns are all spitting at once we all rush out of our huts to gaze at Fritz’s SOS signal rockets. Bram and I are at our wagon lines keeping ammunition supplied to our own guns. When we are not doing that we are wallowing in mud up to our knees or grooming horses, or going up near the trenches after bricks and rubble of all sorts. That’s the time a fellow feels dicky, with bullets spitting overhead like a light breeze blowing through fine wires. You remember how the ‘Albany doctor ‘ used to blow through the tall trees around Wagin Lake? If so, you can imagine’ the sound of bullets singing over your *apper, only with a more musical (staccato) note than the old ‘doctor.’ We are both well, and like our horses as pets. You should see Bram groom his old ‘ Toby ‘ and ‘Fat.’.North West Echo, 9th December 1917