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

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Early in November Second Lieutenant R. S. De Blaby reported for duty from the base. On the 2nd an enemy shell burst in the trench held by A Company, killing two men and wounding one, whilst five others were admitted to hospital suffering from shock. Two mornings later two shells landed at the junction of Aintree Street and the fire trench, killing three men and wounding three others who were waiting as sentry reliefs. About this time, owing to the number of sick and wounded (the trenches were in a very bad state and knee-deep in water through the torrential rains and the men were very wet), it became extremely difficult to find the requisite number of men for the different duties each day.

On the 5th Lieutenant-Colonel Hindle went on leave for nine days, Captain Crump taking over command, and during that period the weather was so bad, snow falling on several of the days, that the programme of training could not be carried out. On the 18th Second Lieutenants T. A. Burnside, F. R. Best, and M. Wilson joined, and on the 20th one man was killed during an enemy burst of 30 small shells in reply to our artillery’s work on the German trenches.