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 334
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[Page 334]
taking part would know exactly his proper work, & what he would have to do under any sort of conditions that might arise. Every man was allotted his proper post, scouts, bombers, bayonet men, moppers up, intelligence men, signallers, runners, etc & for about ten days training in attack formation day & night, running, bombing & route marching, was carried on.
In addition every man forming the raiding party had to visit the front line in parties of fours.
All the officers & NCOs were taken up in daylight to inspect the country from the front line trench so that when each party of four went over the top, the officer or NCO with each man would know just exactly where each trench was situated. The idea was that each man would have to go within 40 yards of the Hun trench then proceed along the line of it as far as he thought necessary, then turn & go back to his own trench.
Of course the idea was to see the country over which the raid was to be made, & to gain as much information about the enemy as possible, & each man was to report his own opinion on the work of the raid etc. When it came to the Sentry's turn a man in his own section with a Sergeant & a Corporal proceeded towards the line, about 4 oclock in the afternoon. Arrangements had been made for a limber to carry them at least 4 miles on the road & a motor waggon was to meet them on their return in the early hours of the morning
Their luck was out, so they had to walk the whole way the limber did not turn up. On arriving at the line, they had further bad luck, for the battalion holding the front trenches was in process of being relieved & this meant a wait of about two hours in the open with the cold bad enough to be painful. After stamping about for at least an hour trying to keep warm they managed to get into a dug out till the battalion taking over had