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

27 страница из 81

THURSDAY, June 10th, 1915.

The day passed away very quietly; but there were two or three very heavy thunderstorms with torrential rains which rapidly converted the trenches—the communication trenches in particular—into quagmires. These communication trenches became very dirty, in no place being less than boot-deep and in many places thigh-deep in a pestilent liquid mud. The boards placed at the bottom of the trench were quite covered over, and, being extremely slippery, were mainly useful in leading the way to the deeper, wetter part of the trenches! Working parties at night in heavy rain had very great difficulty in making progress. The night was very dark, and the men were loaded with spades and hurdles and sandbags. Only a section of the working party under the command of Captain Crump managed to get through to the fire trench, and took three hours to do it—until midnight—distance not quite a mile! Working parties were under control of Engineers.

Lieutenant Hoit was admitted to hospital suffering from rheumatism. Second Lieutenant Rawsthorn, Reserve Machine Gun Officer, took over the Machine Guns.