Heat of the Shrapnel

We were sitting there and there was a crossroad or like just a road across from us and the Black Watch guys were over on the, on the, where the farm was, and they started to shell. They killed the farmer and his wife, and about 10 Black Watch guys were, dove underneath a tree there, and they all got killed. And I was sitting in my hole by myself, like, and I could see that them getting hit, and . . . And this sergeant major, him and I used to fight all the time, so, I saw him go behind this big mound of earth and, so . . . And they used to tell you, you know, if you're shelled in, you're not suppose to move around, like, stay where you are. You start moving around, that's when you get hit. So, I started to go where I saw the sergeant major go behind the, the mound of earth, and just as I got to the mound, there's a piece of shrapnel went by my ear. I could feel the heat just go by my ear you know, and I leaped right over this mound, landed right on top of the sergeant major. Well, then we get into a fight there, arguing there, and the shelling was finished by the time that we, before we got done arguing. What he was mad at, he had all these cigarettes he used to smoke, what is it? British Consulates. They used to come in pouches, and he had them all in, in his tunic, and when I landed on him, it crushed them all, and that's what we were fighting about. But then it, it took the scare away from the, you know, from the shelling. That kind of cooled it down for that, that part, that one, anyway. But they tell you, like, you're not supposed to move. You're not suppose to go under trees. I used to do that all the time. I did everything that . . . I shouldn't have really come through there, because I did everything that I wasn't supposed to, but it seemed to work out.