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It was my day off and in the afternoon I decided to go to the small picture house on Hayling Island.

About ten minutes before the end of the picture the guns opened up. I thought "I'll just see the end of the picture" and after that I nipped over to see the boats coming back from Dieppe.

I was walking along and could hear a noise like "shhh, shhh". I thought "What the hell is that" 'cause it was all open with the sand and stones and shrubs.

Then it went "ping!" It was only a hail of shrapnel coming down, so I put my tin hat on and ran like hell back to camp. I remember wishing the hat could have been as big as an umbrella!

To think that only a few days before the Major had taken us all for a picnic on that beach while another battery had been practicing on our guns!

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