Just to my left some men are
filling up a crater. Then there's a lorry full of bits of an
old corduroy road they're going to lay down somewhere over a
marshy place. There are two sausage balloons sitting up aloft,
and some aeroplanes coming and going. Our front line is not
more than a mile away, and the German line is about a mile and
a quarter. Far off to my right I can just see a field with
tanks in it. Ah--there goes a shell on the Hun line--another!
Can't think why we're tuning up at this time of day. We shall
be getting some of their heavy stuff over directly, if we don't
look out. It's rot!
'And the sun is shining like blazes on it all. As I came up I
saw some of our men resting on the grass by the wayside. They
were going up to the trenches--but it was too early--the sun
was too high--they don't send them in till dusk. Awfully good
fellows they looked! And I passed a company of Bantams, little
Welsh chaps, as fit as mustard.
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