Many in the early days did not realize its dangers, for once gangrene
starts, the foot has to be amputated.

The enemy's trenches were probably as bad as our own, and he only manned
his front line at night, leaving a few snipers to hold it by day. These
were active for the first hour or two after morning "stand to," but then
had breakfast and apparently slept for the rest of the day, at all
events they troubled us no more. This was a distinct advantage, for it
enabled communication to be kept between posts and from front to rear,
without the orderly having either to swim up a communication trench or
run a serious risk of being sniped. One, Kelly, a famous "D" Company
character, tried to walk too soon one morning to fetch his rum ration
and was hit in the knee, much to his annoyance; but on the whole there
were very few casualties. By night, too, there was not much firing,
probably because both sides were hard at work taking up rations,
relieving front line posts, or trying to get dry with the aid of a walk
"on top." In our case, with 24 hour reliefs, there were no ration
parties, because each Company as it went to the line took its rations
and fuel with it.

Our only communication trench was "Cadbury's," which started near
"Chocolat Menier," corner of the Rue du Bois, so called after an
advertisement for this chocolate fastened to the side of a house. It was
even more water logged than the front line, and consequently, except
when the ice was thick enough to walk on, was seldom used. With a
little care it was possible to reach the front line even by day without
the help of a trench at all, and Lieut. Saunders always used to visit
his machine guns in this way, making the journey both ways over the top
every day that we held the sector, and never once being shot at.