whose occupants were untouched. The men were all rather amused at the
whole performance and suggested that we should bring the machine into
the line to warm them up on cold days.

On the 12th we marched once more to the line and relieved the 4th
Lincolnshires, this time for a four-day tour. We found on arrival that
the Boche a few hours previously had blown a large mine in the left
sector, to be occupied by "D" Company (Shields), so that in addition to
the work on the new trench, we had to supply many men for repairing this
new damage--no light task, for many yards of our front trench had
disappeared. To make work more difficult the Boche was continually
throwing bombs and rifle grenades to try and catch our working parties,
and it was only after two days' vigorous retaliation that we taught him
that it was wiser to keep quiet. The leading spirit in this retaliation
was Captain Shields himself, who would sit in his dug-out listening for
a German bomb. If he heard one he would rush out, coat off and sleeves
rolled up, and throw back as many Mills' bombs as he could lay hands on,
a formidable attack, for he could throw a tremendous distance. 2nd
Lieut. A.E. Brodribb was also a keen bomber who would stand at a post
and send back bomb for bomb until he had the Boche beaten. Meanwhile the
Battalion anarchists, though they had bad luck with the "West" spring
gun, which got buried in the bombardment, were very successful in other
ways. Serjeant Goodman, with his catapult, flinging home-made infernal
machines, first from one post, then from another, must have been very
annoying to the German sentries, while Cpl. Archer, firing salvoes of
rifle grenades, eight at a time, always had a quietening effect on any
Boche bomber who ventured to try his luck in this way. So far as bombs
were concerned we had the upper hand, but the Boche could always start
heavy shelling or mortaring, and against this we seemed to have no
effective retaliation. He did particularly heavy damage with these one