“At 11.20 I was informed that Captain Andrews wished to see me; and, with some difficulty, I found him.  He was in a trench with the other B Company officers and Sergeant-Major Hoyle.  He had sent for us in order to tell us that at 11.35 we must each bring our parties into a certain trench (Oxford Road) for refuge as we knew that the bombing raid was coming off at 11.45, and we expected that the Germans would retaliate.  So I brought my party into this trench at the appointed time.  We were there just in time.  At 11.45 our barrage—­artillery, stokes-mortars and machine-guns—­opened on the section of the enemy trench to be raided (Ibex Trench from Oskar Farm to The Stables) a little to our right; and as our barrage lifted, the bombers went into the enemy trench.  We could hear the bombs exploding.  The enemy replied by sending ‘whizz-bangs’ in the vicinity of the trench in which we were taking refuge.  Some of them burst within a yard or two of us; but we crouched behind the parapet, and there were no casualties.

“At about 12.30 this morning, when the raid was over and things had quieted, we emerged from the trench and went back to the job.  Just before we got back an ugly instrument of death familiarly known amongst the boys as a ‘minnie’ burst about the spot where our work was.  That was not encouraging!  But we went back and set to again.  One or two more ‘minnies’ burst not far from us while we were there.  You should have seen us duck!  And the flares continued rising and falling.  We constantly heard the shells from the big guns screaming like express trains over our heads; and every now and then a machine-gun or a Lewis gun would spurt forth its bullets.  We felt anything but comfortable!  One man in C Company was carried away with very bad shell-shock—­a ‘Blighty’ all right!  None of us were sorry when 2 came.  Major Brighten came along just before it was time to stop.  ‘Is that you, Floyd?  How are you going on?’ he inquired as he passed me.  He is liked by everybody.  He is awfully nice.

“Major Brighten is the young Major who is temporarily in command of the Battalion while the real Commanding Officer—­the notorious Colonel Best-Dunkley—­is home on leave.  By the way—­I have not seen Colonel Best-Dunkley yet.  He was away when I arrived.  I am told that it is a treat in store for me!  He is simply hated by everybody.  His reputation as a beast is famed in ‘Blighty.’  I heard about him in the 5th Reserve; and Brian Kemp told me about him when we were in Harrogate.  He is discussed here every day.  From what I hear he is a horrible tyrant; nobody has a good word to say for him.  So I am looking forward to seeing this extraordinary man.  He is only twenty-seven!  His greeting to Verity when he arrived a month ago was:  ‘Who the d——­ are you?’