Item 01: Clifford M. Geddes diary, 31 March-1 August 1918 - Page 93

[Page 93]

with one of our patrols. My word he has rotten luck, he had just done two nights patrol with B Coy. whose place we took & they went back in supports. One night one of their patrol of 4 men disappeared, & hasn't been heard of since. Well, one of D Coy. patrol got crook or something, & instead of sending out one of our men, they sent to B Coy. & poor old Boo was the Jonah. It's a rotten job out on patrol in No Man's Land, walking up & down, & every now & again Fritz sends up flares, & the poor old patrol is out there standing fast while they're up, & wondering if a machine gun has spotted them. Besides this, they are in an unknown land between the two sides, & never know when they'll run fair into an enemy patrol. He used to bring all sorts of extra jobs on himself when in camp as a sergeant, but now he's over here as a sergeant private he seems to have bad luck in striking the extra things that crop up. A couple of hours later I saw them return all right, & he should have had a full day's sleep today, as there is no moving about in the day time. The stew & tea arrived about 10.30 p.m., after which my little party carried on with the trench digging as usual till dawn. Saty. 18 May We watched our trench mortars giving pie to an old house & heap of rubbish at daybreak, where Fritz is supposed to have