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[Page 23]
May
attack that night which afterwards proved a great success. It was also this night that I fired my first shot on active service. I was again detailed on the night of the 8th as one of a covering party & I was placed several hundred yards from the (our) parapet & during my watch I could both see & hear the enemy working outside their parapet but we were not troubled by them & and after our lads had finished a good nights work we retired uninterfered with & turned in. On the night of the 15th the Welsh Fusaliers gave a rifle & machine gun demonstration which lasted about twenty minutes. During the afternoon of the 19th the enemy opened out with artillery fire on our lines & five casualties were sustained in our company & our parapet was knocked about in places. We were relieved by the 9th Battalion about 11-30 pm & we left the trenches in sections in single file & had to march to our billets which were situated several miles the other side of Sailly Croix-de-Bac & it was not till day break that we layed down for a few hours rest. During our stay in the trenches we experienced some very wet weather & my duties for twelve days were barb wire fatigue in no mans land between the trenches of a night. One night I was on covering party & the next on wiring & were very lucky for several night's the enemies machine gun opened up on us