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[page 72]
141
(3).
of two main saps in the Armentiers district which rejoiced in the title of "Belfields Corner". Dugouts also come in for a variety of names. First there is the British type of dugout which suggests the labours of an elderly xxxxxx hen trying to scratch herself a good place to sit down on. And there is the Boche type, which suggests a subterranean villa at Daceyville, only less jerry built. But whatever the type, they blossom forth into names as soon as occupied. You have "Rose Villa", "Berlin View", "10 Downing St.", "The Cecil", and "Little Grey Homes in the Wet" in dozens. But only one of them really lingers with me as having possessed both charm and appropriateness. It was called "Latrine View".
This xxx land in winter alternates between hard frost and mud. For three weeks we had a continuous frost during which the ground was so hard as to defy men's efforts to dig trenches. All food was frozen, including bread, and the Brigade Band couldn't play for fear the men's lips would freeze to the mouthpieces of the instruments. Then suddenly a thaw sets in and the country in one day is transformed into a sea of mud in which horses and men struggle and flounder. Fortunately tents have long since been abandoned in France and their place taken by Huts. These huts are roomy and comfortable and each is fitted with a stove for warming purposes. To keep them out of the mud, they are built upon stilts and each hut is connected up with duck walks so that one is able to walk to any hut in the camp without having to struggle with the mud. Duckboards, by the way, are made in sections of about 7 feet long and 2 feet wide by nailing pieces of 3" X 1" timber with inch spaces, to two pieces of parallel battening placed two feet apart. There are hundreds