“It was 3 in the afternoon when I got up.  Before rising I read nine letters which were awaiting me—­some post!”

After describing the happenings of the previous night in a letter written home that Sunday afternoon (July 15) I went on to say:  “I shall pull through all these exciting little episodes all right.  I am quite all right so far.  Cheer up!  Better times in store!  We all look forward to that great day ‘When war shall be no more.’  It will be a glorious day when, at last, peace is attained.  I am looking forward to the happy days to come and intend to have a good time then.  We are now going through the storm.  But there is a calm ahead:  ’Peace shall follow battle, Night shall end in day.’”

My diary of July 15 carries on: 

“In the evening I went on a working party with Allen.  It was a case of extending the trench in Pagoda Wood another fifty yards.  We set to work at 10 a.m.  Our guns were bombarding the enemy trenches most of the time, but there were not many shells coming from the enemy.  A few fell some hundred to two hundred yards away during the night.  Our chief annoyance on this occasion was a German machine-gun firing from Kaiser Bill.  It swept our trench completely.  One man in my platoon, Berry by name, was wounded in the leg.  It was a wonder there were no more casualties:  the bullets were flying amongst us in great profusion.  But they were mostly low, so not very dangerous.  ‘This is the place for “Blighties"!’ Lance-Corporal Livesey encouragingly observed to me while they were whistling round us.  We stayed at the job quite a long time.  I was beginning to wonder when Allen was going to pronounce it finished; the men were obviously fed up.  At last he let half the party go at 2.30 a.m. and told me to take them back.  We returned by the road all the way from Potijze to the Menin Gate.  It was 3 a.m. when we got back to the Ramparts.  It was getting quite light.  Allen followed on with the remainder about half an hour later; he came through the fields.  We had some refreshment and then went to bed.”

“July 16th.

“I did not get up until 3 p.m. this afternoon.  Since 8 Platoon has practically ceased to exist owing to gas casualties, 7 and 8 are again combined under Giffin, and I am second-in-command.  Baldwin remains platoon sergeant.  If and when we get sufficient reinforcements the two platoons will separate again.

“The Germans have been bombarding Poperinghe with very big shells to-day.  The shops, I hear, are all shut.  It looks as if they intend to destroy the town.  Our great bombardment of the enemy trenches is in progress.”

That evening I wrote a lengthy letter home.  In the course of it I said:  “The padre is in hospital at present, having been wounded by a shell in the streets of the city the other day.  It is only a very slight wound, so he will not be in hospital long.  With regard to the four officers who were wounded on July 1—­Ronald is in hospital in Bristol doing well; Halstead, with a wound in the stomach, is going to ‘Blighty’ shortly; Barker and Wood are very bad indeed, the former was given up altogether the other day.  They are much too bad to cross the water yet.  We were all amused to read in the Manchester Guardian that Halstead had been lately in the Army Ordnance Corps; it is, of course, incorrect.