Item 01: Eric Susman war diary, 1 January 1915-4 April 1916 - Page 88
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[Page 88]
Friday 5 March 1915
This morning, as the battalion was ordered to carry out some entrenching exercises, the first opportunity was given to me to show my capabilities as a "pick and shovel" man. As the ground was soft and sandy, I got along famously, but how I would manage in difficult country, I do not care to imagine.
It turned out that this morning's work was merely a rehearsal for the evening's performance. At about nine o'clock in the night the brigade moved off to take part in our first divisional night operations. After going for about eight miles, a halt was made, we entrenched in a favourable position and settled down to a long wait for the enemy's attack which was expected at dawn, and at dawn it came. But it was a feeble affair without an effective results; and we had gained the day. The work was very satisfactorily performed as indeed is all the more advanced stages of our training, which is now drawing rapidly to a close. Still I have had quite enough of even one single night in the trenches on a bleak, cold desert to last me for a long time. What about three months of Hell in France …?