the 15th Capt. Griffiths had his parapet blown away by salvoes of these
very disagreeable little shells. One's parapet in this area was one's
trench, for digging was impossible, and we lived behind a sort of
glorified sandbag grouse butt, six feet thick at the base and two to
three feet at the top, sometimes, but not always, bullet-proof.

One or two amusing stories are told about the infantry opposite "33,"
who were Saxons, and inclined to be friendly with the English. On one
occasion the following message, tied to a stone, was thrown into our
trench: "We are going to send a 40 lb. bomb. We have got to do it, but
don't want to. I will come this evening, and we will whistle first to
warn you." All of this happened. A few days later they apparently
mistrusted the German official news, for they sent a further message
saying, "Send us an English newspaper that we may learn the verity."

The weather throughout the tour was bad, but on the night of 17th/18th,
when we were relieved at midnight by the Sherwood Foresters, it became
appalling. We were not yet due for a rest, having been only four days in
the line, and our orders were to spend the night in bivouacs at
Kruisstraat and return to trenches the following evening, taking over
our old sector "50" to "A7." Weakened with sickness and soaked to the
skin, we stumbled through black darkness along the track to
Kruisstraat--three miles of slippery mud and water-logged shell
holes--only to find that our bivouac field was flooded, and we must
march back to Ouderdom and spend the night in the huts, five miles
further west. We reached home as dawn was breaking, tired out and wet
through, and lay down at once to snatch what sleep we could before
moving off again at 6-30 p.m. But for many it was too much, and 150 men
reported sick and were in such a weak condition that they were left
behind at the huts, where later they were joined by some 40 more who had