Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 330
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[Page 330]
of shells, in the hope of catching us during the work, for they evidently knew what was going on, but none of their shells succeeded, with any of this Company. Every night there were three or four casualties, slight ones, which arose through a pick or a shovel striking a Mills bomb, numbers of which were lying scattered about the shell holes & which of course could not be seen in the dark.
The casualties became so regular from this cause that after the second or third night, an order was issued instructing the stretcher bearers to accompany the party each night in future.
Owing to the constant & regular shelling that took place on this front the telephone wires were so often cut that it was decided to lay a number of cables tied together to form the thickness of a 2½ Inch rope & bury it 6 feet below the surface. Laying out the cable was really very much more dangerous than digging the trench for the coils of wire had to be carried from the dump about 4 miles back, the wires unrolled formed into a cable & hauled by hand into the position along the line of which the workers at night would dig, during the day time, & as the Huns could plainly see that this work was being performed they were able to make things quite lively at times but although the shells occasionally burst too close to be comfortable for those working on the cable, strange to say not a man of the party was hit.
However when the cable was being laid across the support line, the numbers of men working here afforded the enemy gunners a much better mark & for about a week he unfortunately caused quite a number of serious casualties. The worst night was when five were killed & 19 wounded, but all belonging to the Company in the support line. Once he registered on the support trench itself, it proved to many, a night too hot to remain in the