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[Page 13]
as a reserve in case of the first line falling. Pioneers worked at the parapets & artillery-men at mortar implacements, while new bombing posts were erected at various intervals. Things had begun to stagnate before our arrival. Continued wet & cold weather prevented the previous regiments from doing any important work & even the sniping and artillery duels between the opposing parties had by mutual agreement been reduced to an almost negligible quantity. Our first couple of nights things had been extremely quiet but now the rattle of musketry & machine gun was loud & constant.
Our M.G. Section took over the patrolling gun in the front line on Thursday 27th & we had a glance over the German position. Their line with its handle of barb wire & irregular sand bags runs parallel to ours at a distance of about 70 yards. The intervening space has, has an odd tree at intervals for the present resembles a quagmire. A little to the right of our centre is our mine crater from which of the bombing forays take place, while a little over is one of which the Germans occupy at nights. At the rear of the German lines the principal feature is a village while scattered about among the woodlands, ruinous & blackened are the remains of the once prosperous farm houses. On Thursday night we had a little taste of the real thing. About sunset a heavy bombardment began several miles on our left, slowly extending in our direction. Just after dark a red flare went up from the enemy lines & as if this was a signal the bombardment burst on our lines. The sight was rather beautiful. Flares without number illuminated the space between the trenches like day & the German shells with a swish & a roar burst in the darkness beyond our second line lighting up for an instant