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[Page 21]
Christmas in the Trenches
Wychaste Messines 1917
Snow had been falling for a week and the ground was frozen and feather white as far as the eye could reach. Shell holes were frozen over but if you slid off a duck-board and into one you would go through the ice and into muddy water.
This was a quiet front but extreme hardships were experienced in holding the out-posts in the bitter cold. Trench feet were the worst. The aggressive spirit was not much evidenced on either side, but machine-guns raked the duck-board approach to the piquet-line. Then you were forced to "resume the prone" position in the snow, and I assure you it was not necessary to have the text book with you. You got down far quicker than when practicing on the parade ground.
The Brainstorm.
It was a moonlit night and the two sentries at No 5 post stood behind the low half buries pill-box that secreted a trench-mortar crew with its dark and cramped interior. They were just able to get a view over the top without exposing themselves too much. It was just as well for them that such was the case, for Fritz's well