MORNING SERIAL

IF troops holding the trench were sheltering in it from a fierce bombardment before an attack, it was quite possible for the attacking troops to be in the trench before they could climb out of the entrances, which were very steep, and men could not come up them very well without the assistance of the handrail.

Once the trench was captured they in the tunnel would be bombed from front, rear and side entrances.

The tunnel ran into a little river on our left. On our right there was a block-end in both trench and tunnel. The other side of the block-end the trench and tunnel continued, which was still held by the enemy.

There were enemy dead still laying about in some parts of the tunnel which was littered with weapons of all descriptions.

With the aid of a candle one of the newly-joined men was about to drag some things from underneath a bed.

I pulled him sharply away; he might have blown us all to bits. Underneath some of the beds were German stick-bombs which exploded in five seconds after the string was pulled, and he could have easily pulled one of the strings of them by mistake.

I gave him a couple more instructions what to do and what not to do.

The following morning one hundred bombers of the Battalion under the command of Mr Sassoon were sent to the Cameronians to assist in a bombing attack on the Hindenburg Trench on our right.

A considerable part of it was captured but was lost again during the day when the enemy made a counter attack. During the operations Mr Sassoon was shot through the top of the shoulder.

Late in the day I was conversing with an old soldier and one of the few survivors of old B Company who had taken part in the bombing raid.

He said, “God strike me pink, Dick, it would have done your eyes good to have seen young Sassoon in that bombing stunt. He put me in mind of Mr Fletcher. It was a bloody treat to see the way he took the lead.”