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[Page 14]
The ruins of our farmhouses and hurtling splinters & schrapnel with their musical drone earthwards. Our artillery replied, doing some execution to the front line of the enemy & rifles & and M.G's cracked & scattered along the parapets. For an hour the bombardment lasted & then died down as suddenly as it began leaving as the total damage one burning farm house, two slightly wounded men & a few craters in the fields behind the lines. Such is the terror of the German Strafe. The rest of the night passed quietly. Two rather disappointed M.G's strolled up & down the lines putting bursts into the quiet parapet opposite or driving from a gunery were parties headlong into their trenches (Perhaps)
The following days passed rather quietly with the usual whizz-bang activity. On Wednesday 3rd May we handed the patrol over to our relief & went into reserve .
On coming out of the wintry communication trenches one was struck by the range in the landscape. What was on our entry, bare desolate & sodden country-side was now bright green with the coat of spring. Fruit trees, apple & pear appeared in masses of beautiful blossom, hawthorne hedges of delicate green with white flowers lined the roads & grass dotted with yellow buttercups covered the fields. Only ruined houses & the crash of bursting shells or the roar of answering artillery could make one realise that war was so close at hand.
We were roused from our game of cards on the night of Friday 5th May by the sonorous banging of the gas alarm. Our helmets were soon adjusted & we could see & hear that activity extraordinary was in progress on our sector. Flares made the night like day & the roar of bursting shells & answering artillery, the crack of the rifles & the rattle