Читать книгу The War History of the 1st/ 4th Battalion, 1914-1918. The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment онлайн

23 страница из 81

The next day we lost two men wounded by shell fire, which was pretty heavy. A working party of 200, with a covering party under Lieutenant Brindle, started a new trench from the new bridge towards the Canadians, and did good work in spite of bursts of shrapnel at intervals; during the night bearings were taken on gun flashes, and we located the enemy battery which was troubling us.

On the 30th the enemy fire—both shrapnel and H.E. (known in those days as “Jack Johnsons” or “Coalboxes”)—was heavier than usual; two years later such activity would have provoked a perfect hurricane of retaliation from our own guns, but in 1915 our gunners had nothing to throw away and no retaliation could be had. That night the working parties continued their work, and our guns at 12 15 a.m. and 2 15 a.m. fired a few shells. The enemy retorted with vigour, wounding Second Lieutenant Bryce-Smith and five men and killing one. The working parties were brought in at 1 a.m. The enemy fire died down about 3 30 a.m., but burst out afresh at 11 a.m., being directed chiefly on our fire trenches, which were damaged in several places.