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[Page 91]
what one does the other replies with:
Saturday April 22nd
in the trenches: cold & wet & miserable: guarding the [indecipherable] post was a rotten nervy job after dark: same old routine: one of our aero's fired a machine gun into Fritzs trench.
Sunday April 23rd
beautiful day: aero's up like flies & shells chasing them everywhere: we had a rough time under a bombardment of "coal boxes" it lasted three hours & in the last ½ an hour 292 shells fell on our Coy's front alone: there were some miraculous escapes dugouts tumbled in & dirt & water was flying everywhere: but a lot of shells were defective & did not explode: I got a nose cap for a souvenir: Heard, Higgs & myself were crouching behind a parapet & a bit fell between us then a bit of shell dinted Heards helmet & another banged mine: casualties practilly nil in our Coy & I wonder how any of us are alive at all: one burst in front of our traverse & we were covered in mud & water: our traverse partition collapsed: the "boys" were all wishing for the Fritzes to charge but they did not come: they would have got cut in slices like a bit of Fritz: after tea we were given a beautiful exhibition of flying bravery & madness by one of our airman (possibly the mad major) He flew only 2 or 3 hundred feet from the ground & about 12 machine guns were at him beside shell & rifle fire: he circled round them then would fly over our lines & deliberately turn again & fly into their fire: he did this four or five times & it is a treat to watch: we were relieved at 10 pm by the 19th : C. Brodie is in this traverse: had a rotten march home up to our knees in mud & water: we had a nice little communion in the morning in the officer's dugout & it was then that the bombardment started mud was rattling on the roof & falling at the entrance while the