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

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A, B, and D Companies were in the trench line, with C Company in reserve holding an entrenched post. These “forts” took the place of the support line in the trenches we had been in before and were intended as defensive and rallying points in case of an attack. Battalion Headquarters was in the open.

Second Lieutenant Evans, who had been left behind with Second Lieutenant Norwood at Oxted when the Battalion moved to Bedford preparatory to sailing for France, rejoined the Battalion from the 2/4th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on the night of June 26th.

On June 27th, Second Lieutenant R. A. Ostrehan and Second Lieutenant E. G. Baker, from the 2/4th Battalion, joined the Battalion, and Second Lieutenant D. H. Ostrehan joined on the night of the 28th.

To the left of our positions, the opposing lines narrowed down until in one place, known as Red Lamp Corner, they were no more than fifty yards apart. A mine was sprung here by us one morning at dawn, and shook the earth around. There was a short bombardment by our artillery of the mine crater and of the enemy line, and a slight reply from the German artillery, which bombarded the position much more heavily two days later, but these bombardments did not affect us.