1.
Tall wine bottles are great for this! Just dig a trench and place bottles standing up as a barrier around your garden, etc
2.
across the drive, acting as a second line of defence, a reserve trench, behind which he
3.
He drives on, points out a freshly dug trench
4.
Through it all, through the jokes and the bonhomie, all boys together in the relief trench, I couldn’t shake a nagging sense of indignation
5.
He fetched more pieces of pipe with other odd bits and then pulled away some boards laying on the ground, heretofore unnoticed by anyone, which revealed a trench leading over to the side of the outhouse
6.
Before any time at all, he and Harry had run piping from the house to the outhouse and recovered the trench with soil to seat the pipe and the boards to protect them
7.
The man in the black suit and trench coat was
8.
She popped out of the car wearing a long beige trench coat, something
9.
Heather untied the belt around her waist and dropped the beige trench coat to the
10.
Johnson took off his trench coat and hung it on
11.
The Fare Skye was now in international waters above the deepest part of the Indian Ocean: the Mariana Trench
12.
Li-Na and Li-Li with the passengers and shredded MH370 were now slowly drifting to a deep watery grave in the Mariana Trench some 5,000 metres below
13.
The battle was an intense form of trench warfare
14.
Suddenly my friend jumped up and began to run to the front, jumped over the intercessor in the trench and began to run forward and take ground
15.
There was a general cry of dismay as the third wave clambered over the trench merely to be met with a field so liberally strewn with spiked metal caltrops that it was impossible not to step on one
16.
“But…how did it allegedly happen anyway? From this idiotic faux-conflict? Even I’d have pity for the poor fool if he’s laying in some icy Nordic trench somewhere in this hinterland
17.
They were stacked up in huge frozen waves to either side of the ship, forming a frozen wake either side of its landing path, and that was going to make it extremely difficult when they set off to go in any direction other than follow the trench left by the Elysian
18.
As we moved up the ravine ready to take the next trench Lt Walter Cole was killed he had just waved at me and was advancing with his pistol held out in front of him when I saw him jerk and fall face down into the dirt
19.
We had just poured a withering fire into a trench on our left knocking it out and bayoneting the Turks who tried to surrender
20.
“No thank you Corporal we shall be moving on after this smoke we have collected all the men from our Company in a trench on the left and I think my lads here are the last to be found
21.
” The Corporal responded by saying, “Very good Sir but if you should change your mind we are round the corner”, then having told us this he made his way down the trench to the next set of men
22.
Now there’s a brew going down the trench so go and get a mug and get those bloody dressings changed before some disease sets in and takes the pair of you”, and with this he turned and walked off down the trench
23.
My head felt like it had been bandaged in cotton wool I looked down the trench and saw other lads who must have felt the same as me
24.
Major Danby stood on the back step of the trench and said
25.
He looked at us stood in the trench with our faces upturned to him and continued
26.
“We can go on just give us the word Sir”, mutters of agreement ran around the trench
27.
We had consolidated the trench and cleaned most of the rubbish out of it and the dead Turk bodies that had been left behind
28.
Now the sun came out in earnest and it was stiflingly hot in the trench besides this hardly any of us had any water left and our thirsts were raging
29.
“I know that feeling all too well lads and it’s alright Elijah can’t blame you for what’s happening either anyway I must be off on my rounds so cheerio boys and I will no doubt see you later?” He set off down the trench asking others about water and as we watched him go we knew that he was in for some serious ear bashing for his trouble
30.
The sun was high in the sky now even though it was only just after mid-day it beat down on the trench and us like a hammer on an anvil and crushing people with its force
31.
” I got my kit together and we set off for the Command Bunker further down the trench as we walked I could feel the heat and my tongue was sticking to the roof of my mouth
32.
Dismissing us the Captain went off to report on the machine guns and we were left to stagger to our own trench weighted down with fatigue
33.
As we reached the trench we were hailed as conquering heroes and it was obvious that the story of the Turkish attack had preceded us
34.
” With a last look of contempt he moved on down the trench and we could hear him continuing to cause havoc everywhere he went
35.
I looked up and saw a Fusilier walking down our stretch of trench and I had the strange feeling that I had seen him before but then again I had seen a lot of them since being attached
36.
Having just destroyed a trench to our left we carried on upward Charlie was in front of us he stopped and looked back at us down the slope
37.
” He spat on the trench floor and his cheeks were stained with tears as he continued
38.
In slow motion I move to the far end of the trench and I can hear is voice more clearly now he is shouting
39.
” I listened again and his voice seemed to be coming from a sap that ran off the main trench I turned down it and there at the end propped up against the wall was old Dawson
40.
We were thanked for our efforts and told we had put up a magnificent show and the what we had been waiting for happened and we were dismissed night was falling as we got back to our trench we slumped to the floor in a state of collapse were the cold bit into us and then the rain teemed down
41.
“What the fuck is going on what’s happening?” He was trying to stand up but had caught his tunic on a nail jutting out from the side of the trench which now held him back
42.
Sgt Ted Wallace was stood behind us commanding our length of trench and he barked out the order saying
43.
The ammo carriers appeared and started handing out bandoliers and clips of ammo me and my mates arranged the clips on the trench lip close at hand for reloading
44.
We dug our trenches like in France and settled down to this trench warfare although at Helles the trenches were nowhere near as close as what they were at ANZAC but this was only because of the terrain
45.
We were sitting in the bottom of the trench when a shout went up
46.
We filled our water bottles up while we were there and then made our way back to the trench Elijah who was always one for the off chance had filled the billycan up as well and brought it back with him
47.
He said as we got back to the trench
48.
When I got back to the trench I was greeted like a hero by Elijah and Johnny who were doing a jig of delight they stopped and Elijah said
49.
Then Elijah found a place in the trench wall that was perfect
50.
” In the side of the trench wall a hole had been scraped out probably to store someone’s kit but it could have been for anything we shoved our precious store of wood into it and then covered it up with loose dirt and shoved a rusty bayonet over the top to mark where it was
51.
We usually used a old sap trench or the like and just threw them in piles of decomposed and decomposing bodies
52.
“When we took this trench from the Turks it was left piled with their dead so we put them in the parapet wall piled soil on them and moved the trench back a bit too where we are now standing
53.
“Why don’t you take the Lieutenant down the trench and show him our good luck charm Sir”, we all burst out laughing at this
54.
“At the bottom of the trench Sir on the way out to the secondary trenches there is an old Turkish body buried in the trench side wall
55.
The only part that is visible is one hand sticking out so on the way up and down the trench the lads shake hands with the Turk and wish him the time of day and this brings good luck on the trench
56.
“Quick I’m going to open three cans of apricot jam and throw them down the trench when these shit house flies descend on them shovel your grub down before they get back
57.
” He opened the cans and in seconds they and his hands were covered in a black cloak he threw them down the trench and the flies went after them we gulped our rations down for once not having to share them with a million flies
58.
I slowly looked round the trench and he was right because apart from a few up and down the trench was oddly fly free
59.
It’s down to those Essex lads in the next trench they have found a spare sap trench and are busy filling it with any of our of Turkish corpses
60.
“They infiltrate our trench lines and then call the name of a soldier when the person goes to find out who wants him he gets a knife or bayonet in the guts and then the Turks scarper back to their own lines
61.
We spent the day making barbed wire entanglements we did this in the bottom of the trench making a wooden frame first these were about fourteen feet long and then we would loop barbed wire round them
62.
” This was followed by the hammer Elijah was using being thrown at the trench wall and then him proceeding to dance up and down blowing on his thumb which he had just hit with the hammer he then shoved his thumb into his mouth
63.
“Oh now I see what you mean that’s why the frames are made in the trench then very clever”, and with this he got up we saluted and he walked off down the trench
64.
That night we shoved the frames out onto the top of the parapet and then we followed them we then began to manoeuvre them into position in front of the trench
65.
We had just got them into the right position and were preparing to return to our trench when I was tripped by an old piece of Turkish wire that was sticking out of the ground
66.
However what was only minutes later but seemed like hours the final strand was cut but the tins kept rattling making us jump but eventually we made it back to our own trench without the Turks firing a shot
67.
The lads in our trench weren’t though and we jumped at the noise you were making it sounded like an ironmongers cart going by with all the rattling and clanging that was going on
68.
Things had been going as well as they could do and we had been back out of the line and down in the rest camp but now we were back in the same trench as we had left before the whole peninsula seemed to be in a static state at the moment which suited us fine
69.
Anyway we were sitting in the bottom of the trench Elijah, Eli, Johnny, Ted Wallace and I making bombs out of jam tins which is what we used on the peninsula
70.
Standing in the trench later on waiting for the off we were dressed just in shirts trousers and boots and carrying only our rifles with spare clips of ammo in our pockets three of the patrol were carrying jam tin bombs and both Lieutenant Smith and Sergeant Wallace were carrying pistols
71.
“Oh fucking hell that’s all we need we are buggerd now and no mistake” and he looks over at the Turkish trench just in front of us
72.
One of the Turkish sentries shouted something and fires in our direction but his shot went wide I fired and mine didn’t and I watched him fall back into the trench
73.
We had been pouring support fire into the trench but now the whole front seemed to be coming to life and very flares were arcing up into the sky casting a bright artificial light over everything
74.
We fell into the trench and cigarettes were pushed into our mouths and lit as we gasped for breath on the trench floor then Captain Melstone and CSM Domby came up to greet us the first thing the Captain said was
75.
Ted Wallace then informed the Captain showing him on the trench map were the new gaps where in the Turkish wire so that he could inform Brigade and the Captain went off looking rather pleased
76.
We had heard of at least one person who was suffering horribly from the disease who had gone to the latrines by himself sat on the pole slipped of into the trench and drowned in shit because he was to weak to get out
77.
We were sat in the bottom of the trench on the fire step wondering whether or not to make some more jam tin bombs when Major Danby, Captain Melstone and CSM Domby dropped by they walked straight up to where Johnny Eli and I sat talking so we jumped up stood to attention and saluted
78.
“No that’s alright the Fusiliers are having rather a lot of trouble in their trench sector with a Turkish sniper
79.
Fixed on top of it was a Kahle 4X81 telescopic sight I looked through it seeing the recticle and lining it up further down the trench
80.
I went back to our trench and Ted said
81.
We got to the Fusiliers trench and a Lieutenant told us to just stand easy and wait a minute and he ducked his head into a dugout shouting
82.
” I watched the Turkish sniper as he now traversed the rest of the trench with his scope probably looking to see if he could find a more senior target
83.
I could hear a great cheer go up from the Fusiliers trench and Elijah and Johnny patted me on the back and congratulated me I told them to wait there and I crawled over the ground between us and the dead Turkish sniper
84.
Most of the damage was on the side he had rolled onto I took his rifle which was like mine only had a different make of scope on it that was not as good as mine and going back picking the lads up I told Johnny to rewrap my rifle in the blanket for now and that I would clean it as soon as we got back to the Fusiliers trench
85.
When we got back to the trench the O
86.
“I don’t remember anything after I got back near the trench can you tell me what happened after that?” The nurse appeared above me again and asked
87.
For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation
88.
We filed into a communications trench and began to make our way down it as we walked along it was just about wide enough to accommodate a man with a pack on
89.
As we filed along I looked up and saw that the trench wall was about seven feet high so all you could see was a patch of sky and the mans pack in front of you
90.
” We ran across and dived into the trench on the other side as the machine gun chattered into life and sent a few bursts our way we all made it safely though
91.
“Right you men fall out in this part of the trench and listed to what the men here have to say because it just might save your lives”, this was it then we had reached the front line
92.
” He looked down the trench and then bent double he got up from his position he said
93.
The Welshman who was on duty was observing the ground to his front through a trench periscope which he would turn to scan the landscape
94.
Then Jack Lewis showed us the latrine this was dug into the trench wall and was just a hole dug in the floor with a plank placed across it
95.
Picking up old cigarette packets and other litter as well as any debris that had fallen into the trench we also shored up any part that needed it
96.
“This trench seems to be well built I must say?” He looked at me with an appraising eye and replied
97.
We have shored it up better and used more sandbags out front we have erected more wire and have put more duckboards down on the trench floor”, he passed us our teas and continued
98.
” They waved goodbye and formed up with their Company they moved off down the trench and the last I saw of them was Jack’s sad watery eyes looking at us and him raising his hand in a final salute
99.
That night Captain Thornley and I had been designated to pick up the rum ration for our section of trench we found our way to the supply point fairly easily and picked up the large stone bottle of rum and then made our way back
100.
Mind you sometimes this was an advantage as the Germans seemed to concentrate on the nicer sections of trench leaving these others alone when they were shelling
1.
It was the last week of August, he had trenched, laid pipe, fitted and made connections, run a drain to the existing out house, installed two pumps and a few fixtures, and was ready to test the system
2.
trenched in warfare, once is enough for interest or vanity – strained through a verse
3.
When our consciousness is alert and well trenched to safeguard its integrity, it starts ignoring the urges propagated by ego-mind and takes no action upon them, it simply ‘lets go’ all the traps thrown by ego-mind
1.
Helen was on the front line, down in the trenches
2.
The necessary occupation of a ditcher prepares him to work in the trenches, and to fortify a camp, as well as to inclose a field
3.
We started up the ravine that ran to the top of the cliffs and that’s when we ran into another Turkish surprise for we could see that they had cut trenches on either side of the ravine
4.
” The time pushed on and so did the rest of us assaulting our objective at Hill 114 and securing it despite the casualties that we had suffered the Turks eventually withdrew abandoning their trenches which we took over
5.
“We had made our way off the beach and were advancing up the gully with your lot to attack the trenches at the top
6.
Eventually we managed to and I don’t know how to find a way out of this devils back garden and to our surprise we found ourselves looking at the forward Turkish trenches guarding Krithia
7.
In the mean time and more through luck the Turks hadn’t seen us and must have been half asleep the Officers went on talking as others watched the Turk trenches through field glasses and reported back what they were seeing in the Turkish positions
8.
“You’re probably right Johnny but I have looked at those Turkish trenches over there and I haven’t got field glasses but to my eye they look only lightly defended if you ask me”
9.
We all looked over at the Turkish trenches as the Officers conference broke up and the Major came back over to us he reached us and said
10.
“Gather round lads and I will fill you in on what’s happening it would seem that the Turks for whatever reasons haven’t seen us yet and from what we can make out their trenches are only lightly manned and not heavily defended as we were told”
11.
So get yourselves ready we start in ten minutes hit them hard and give no quarter we must take these trenches before they can reinforce them so good luck and good hunting”, he saluted and turned to his Officers and NCOs and then he walked over to the other senior Officers
12.
“I told you this would happen and that it would bode no good for us and I was right charging fucking trenches with a handful of blokes mark my words no bloody good will come from this escapade and that’s a fact
13.
Trenches had been dug and the new front line was a couple of miles up the Krithia road and although we had only been here six days conditions were bad
14.
We had finished our fatigues and it was someone else’s turn now so we were back in the front line trenches me Elijah and Johnny who seemed to have attached himself to us
15.
“Steady lads look to your front and wait for the next flares to light the landscape then when I give the order pour your fire into them and show no mercy don’t let them reach the trenches
16.
Shortly an attack was thrown in against the trenches we had lost in the breakthrough and the Turks were thrown back out of them suffering heavy losses
17.
Though the attack had taken its toll on the Division and with no reserves to spare we ended up back in our own trenches were we had started from
18.
“I know and that’s why I’m telling you it’s all over the trenches what happened to them
19.
The trenches were now static and the fight now was relegated to small skirmishes although we gained more land from these than from either of the two big battles put together
20.
We dug our trenches like in France and settled down to this trench warfare although at Helles the trenches were nowhere near as close as what they were at ANZAC but this was only because of the terrain
21.
However I would not be in the trenches for a few days as after the third day of the battle the bullet crease in my shoulder had turned sceptic despite Johnny’s administrations and the poison was in my blood
22.
“Luckily a couple of stretcher bearers risked their lives to come and get me and the other bloke they brought us back to our trenches only he was dead and I ended up down here
23.
Life in the front line trenches could be both deadly amusing and heartbreaking all at the same time and the lack of water was chronic and always a problem for we could never seem to get enough
24.
Sometimes corpses were left out in front of the trenches and of course in the sort of climate we were in they decomposed very quickly but both sides recognised the health issues that the corpses represented and a truce would be called so they could be policed up and buried
25.
“At the bottom of the trench Sir on the way out to the secondary trenches there is an old Turkish body buried in the trench side wall
26.
When we arrived back at the front line we could see that the Fusiliers had been busy and had taken another set of Turkish trenches pushing us another few yards forward
27.
We settled down in these trenches cleaning them out and making them more comfortable for us to live in
28.
It would seem that the Turks have been listening in to the talking that is going on in our trenches and they are learning the names of our people
29.
But I knew that in a moment that they would get quite a wakeup call when our bombs were chucked into their trenches
30.
I hear something and pull my rifle into my shoulder ready to fire but I relax as I realise that it is only a sentry coughing our nerves are stretched as tight as a drum and there is no better laxative known to man than being in front of the Turkish trenches
31.
The first wave would take the forward Turkish trenches and then hold them while the second wave leap frogged over them and took the reserve trenches and then we would be behind the lines and out onto open ground which would be easy going then
32.
This would take care of any Turks who manned the trenches again after the first bombardment had finished Elijah said
33.
“One barrage two what does it matter at the end of the day the Turks will be manning their fucking trenches when we go over the top and they will hardly have been touched
34.
“Very carefully look towards our trenches and see if you can see an Officer anywhere in sight”, he did as I told him and very shortly replied
35.
We stood in the reserve trenches as our Company had been designated in the second wave and as we looked foreword we could see the first wave of the 88th Brigade stood in the front line trenches waiting and at 2:20pm our artillery bombardment began
36.
But within minutes the Turkish artillery responded with heavy shrapnel and we could hear it pinging and rattling like hailstone on the front trenches were the casualties and dead had began to pile up before a single man had started advancing towards the Turkish lines
37.
” Then at three thirty the first wave finally surged forward the day was hot and windless and at first things were going well and the first wave had started to take the forward Turkish trenches
38.
But within a matter of minutes the Turkish machine guns and shrapnel had turned the trenches into an hell on earth piled high with dead and wounded
39.
And back at our lines our reserve trenches were also chocked with dead and wounded from the Turkish artillery barrage
40.
Then the whistles blew and we advanced over the open ground and passed over the top of the Turkish front line trenches leapfrogging on we again hit open ground
41.
“Listen mate were not far from the Turkish trenches so we have to get out of here before the sun comes up again
42.
“Are you ready mate let’s go”, and we set off at quite a pace bent double and heading for trenches
43.
” I explained about the battle and said I could remember everything up to leading him back and getting back in front of our trenches but I could remember anything hardly after that
44.
“Well we have been stuck on that little piece of land called Anzac Cove ever since we first took it and were in spitting distance of the Turkish trenches
45.
We slaughtered them but I will give them their due they kept on attacking there spunky little buggers and no mistake even though there were that many of their corpses in no man’s land that we could hardly see their trenches
46.
“Our trenches faced theirs and the distance varied between them anywhere between sixty and one hundred and fifty yards
47.
So we pushed three tunnels out from the pimple that was our salient opposite ‘Lone Pine’ when the ends were finally opened we would have less than forty yards to cover to reach the Turkish trenches
48.
A barrage had been going on for about three days and it had smashed most of the wire inn front of the Turkish trenches
49.
When we got into their front line trenches we found that they had been roofed over with pine logs and some of these were really elaborate constructions and we kept pushing to find a way in
50.
Eventually we found a way in and dropped through to the foul smelling galleries below then more of our attack pushed past these trenches and stormed the communication ones
51.
Troops poured across from our trenches to reinforce us and considering we had launched a frontal assault our casualties were fairly light
52.
Some of the bombs were thrown back three and four times between the trenches before they exploded
53.
“Now take what is happening in France I would have that sorted out in no time I can tell you we have to get our lads out of the trenches and get them to show a bit more aggression going forward after all its only the Germans we are fighting
54.
This force would push up the landmasses before them to form high mountain ranges such as the Andes, or Rockies; or down, forming deep ocean trenches as the plates pushed down into the mantle
55.
The site of the trenches we were heading for hadn’t changed much since 1914 and stretched from Switzerland to the North Sea coast where we faced the Germans across a small strip of No Mans Land or a salient that pushed forward in a bulge into the opposite territory
56.
As you looked towards the horizon you could see the German strongpoint’s and trenches cut into the high ground across the valley
57.
Henry V, Charles the Bold, Napoleon and the Germans all of them had fought to get control of this land and we were doing the same thing but we could not be allowed to sit out the war in this peaceful backwater and we received orders that we were moving up into the front line trenches
58.
“Here we go back into the trenches again”, I would have punched his face in if Frank and Bert hadn’t held me back
59.
“What the fuck would you know about serving in the trenches you were sat in Egypt looking after a fucking canal when we were fighting on Gallipoli?” George’s lower lip stuck out and he looked like a kid whose sweeties had been pinched however I was well into my stride now and said
60.
“When you have held a dying friend in your arms and had his life blood gush all over you then you might have a right to complain about the trenches but until then just keep bloody quite
61.
That evening orders arrived for the Battalion and we were gathered together and told that we would be relieving a Welsh Battalion and taking over their section of trenches tomorrow while they went into reserve
62.
It had been raining persistently again and there were no duckboards in these communication trenches and the chalky soil held the water which we now waded through
63.
We now had to wait in the reserve trenches and we spent the rest of the day trying to get some shut eye or smoking and talking quietly
64.
There was an open road that ran through here and the reserve trenches finished only to restart on the opposite side so the guide was sending squads of men across this open section to the opposite side
65.
We walked along other communications trenches and then we heard firing very close by and a flare arced up into the sky bursting and bathing everything in its bright white light
66.
“Would you like to take a look out at No Man’s Land through the periscope?” I stepped up and looked through the eyepieces on the scope I could make out the German wire and trenches in the distance and the shell holes and humps that covered the distance between us
67.
In the morning after the hate and before the Welsh mob we were relieving left they started to clean up the trenches and we gave them a hand
68.
They were really good blokes the pair of them and they gave us hundreds more little pieces of advice that would make life easier in the trenches here
69.
During the day when the Welsh had gone there was lots to do around the trenches stacking ammunition and flares, rations and the there was sentry duty and observation duty as well as dozens of other things
70.
The lads were glad to get this ration as it was one of the main things that lifted their spirits in the trenches and most people looked forward to their rum ration with great anticipation
71.
We retired to the reserve trenches for a few days just in case the Hun’s launched a surprise attack at the take over but nothing happened and we left to return to our farm settlement and village
72.
Sometimes it was hell taking supplies to the front the first mile or so was alright because either the wagons or mule trains did all the hard work it was when you got close then everything had to be carried by hand food water equipment had to be shifted to the reserve trenches directly behind the front line trenches
73.
You carried all sorts of stuff ammunition, from rifle to trench-mortar had to be moved through the communication trenches and it was really awkward
74.
We moved up through the communication and reserve trenches a lot of which were in a poor state of repair with cave ins, flooded floors, parts blown in and some and some flooded to near enough the top
75.
The only way to relieve the situation was that the men who had dropped their loads had to climb out of the trench onto the top while we made our way along and past this was the only way to keep the supplies flowing through the trenches
76.
Life in the trenches went on as always but it was a dirty foul smelling lousy place to be, death and destruction were all around and the ‘Grim Reaper’ was ready to shake your hand at any time
77.
This allowed us to awe some of the new replacements when they ducked down and we would stand there nonchalant knowing very well the shells would land in the reserve trenches or far behind the lines
78.
Nobody who had been in the trenches could ever or would ever forget the smell of them this was made up of stale sweat, damp uniforms, shit, bacon, chloride of lime, decomposition and cigarette smoke with the smell of cordite drifting around just to add a new ambience
79.
We got used to falling asleep anywhere and at anytime when you were not in the trenches although even there we could fall asleep standing up leaning against the trench wall if it came down to it I could sleep on a clothes line
80.
However to us who were used to the trenches it was no hardship for we had a knack of dropping off anywhere and sleeping sitting up suited us fine
81.
We left them behind as the train picked up speed transporting us back to the horror of the trenches and the war
82.
We kept on moving along these narrow trenches which now had sandbags on top of the parapet and we could see that grass had seeded itself between these and was now growing adding a splash of green against the muddy colour of the hessian bags
83.
A short time later we found ourselves in the reserve trenches and these were heavenly after being I the narrow communication trenches
84.
As we arrived at the connecting trenches that would convey us into the front line trenches we had to hug the walls as men who had been relieved stumbled past us in their haste to get to the reserve trenches where they could rest for a while
85.
The York & Lanc’s boys were glad to be going back to the reserve trenches and the small amount of comfort they offered
86.
Generally the duration of our stay in the front line was four days with a further four days served in the reserve trenches
87.
We moved to the reserve trenches having completed our stint in the line it was alright in these trenches although we could never completely relax it was a lot better than being in the front line
88.
I must admit though that the sanitation and hygiene facilities in the trenches were practically non existent
89.
That was bad enough but then you had to put up with the lice rats and other vermin that infested the trenches the conditions really were terrible
90.
Five days later we left the reserve trenches and made our way back to ‘Dead Man’s Farm’ where we received more fatigues and working parties
91.
We went back to the same trench system and once again moved into the trench system relieving the Battalion that was manning them who made their way into the reserve trenches
92.
These were the two blokes from the Welsh mob that we had relieved when we first went into the front line trenches and they were really good blokes
93.
We made our way up to the front line again and I was still stunned about Smith being here but as we marched on it seemed like it had only been a couple of days since we had left the front line trenches
94.
A ‘Whizz-Bang’ whistled past overhead and exploded in the reserve trenches Frank said
95.
A short while later the German retaliation started and their shells plastered our front line and reserve trenches we took what cover we could in the bunkers
96.
I will tell you something as well we were not far behind them as we made it to the safety of our trenches and we would have beaten any of the top runners in this race of death
97.
I was shocked and in that time as I my hand poised in midair Smith took off back to our trenches red, white and blue lights shot into the air and machine guns and rifles began to strafe the position where we lay
98.
Our time in the trenches on this occasion was a lengthy one and a lot of the time you spent in the trenches was boring if you were not on a working party or on stag
99.
We also now got extra training on attacking trenches in formation and it got bloody annoying as attack after attack was simulated as the Officers tried to get it right
100.
The trenches had been marked out with white tape and we practised moving foreword in formation as smoke pots created a fog over the field
1.
I had a short, collapsible Army surplus trenching shovel from my Scout days
2.
Trenching and whatnot
3.
This being won, meant that she could come back to Redmond the next year without trenching on Marilla's small savings—something Anne was determined she would not do