William Ambrose Cull letter diary, 1915-1918 - Page 118
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[Page 118]
Practically the only activity here – during the day (broad daylight) is with Aircraft[s] Artillery and of course sapping and mini[ng] operations – Snipers are always watchful
All night long the trenches are almost as silent as a cemetary, except for a constant flash of rifles that mark the lin[e] of the Turkish parapet, the whiz of bull[ets] chipping our parapets and every now and then sending little cascades of earth rustling down into the trench – the wild mo[indecipherable] of a ricochet hitting the parapet and go humming off towards the sea – or the ear-splitting ring as a bullet strikes the steel loop-hole plate of the parapet.
Some nights we draw their fire by some simple ruse – Perhaps send up star shells beautiful great rockets that burst with white and pale green stars low over the Turkish lines – call out ficticious orders blow our whistles and send up flares – The poor old Turks get awfully scared – and blaze away their ammunition like fun.
A screech overhead, immediately followed by the terrific explosion of a howitzer shell (as it bursts just in front in the Turkish lines often heralds the break of day.
It is during the day that the Artillery play their most active part, seldomly firing by night, because of the danger of the flash of the guns betraying their position to the enemy The Gurkha troops are very restless – they are terribly anxious for [a] move on. Gurkha Officers often visit our trenches – it seems that they will not dig in (the Gurkha's) and the Imperial Office[rs]