good surroundings would have cured us completely, and even after eight
days at rest we were in a better state, but on the 13th we were once
more ordered into the line and the good work was undone, for the
sickness returned with increased vigour.

Between the Railway Cutting at "Hill 60" and the Comines Canal further
south, the lines at this time were very close together, and at one
point, called Bomb Corner, less than 50 yards separated our parapet from
the Boche's. This sector, containing trenches "35" at Bomb Corner, "36"
and "37" up to the Railway, was held by the 1st Norfolks of the 5th
Division, who were finding their own reliefs, and, with one company
resting at a time, had been more than two months in this same front
line. On the 11th July the Boche blew a mine under trench "37" doing
considerable damage to the parapet, and on the following night "36" was
similarly treated, and a length of the trench blotted out. The night
after this we came in to relieve the Norfolks, who not unnaturally were
expecting "35" to share the same fate, and had consequently evacuated
their front line for the night, while they sat in the second line and
waited for it to go up in the air. Captain Jefferies with "D" Company
took over "35," while the two damaged trenches were held by "B" Company
(Capt. J.L. Griffiths). "A" and "C" held a keep near Verbranden
Molen--an old mill about three hundred yards behind our front line--and
Battalion Headquarters lived in some dug-outs in the woods behind "35."
Behind this again, the solitary Blaupoort Farm provided R.A.P. and
ration dump with a certain amount of cover, though the number of dud
shells in the courtyard made it necessary to walk with extreme caution
on a dark night. In spite of the numerous reports of listening-posts,
who heard "rapping underground," we were not blown up during our four
days in residence, and our chief worry was not mines, but again
whizz-bangs. One battery was particularly offensive, and three times on