did. I took him along with me
and had to caution him several times as he is tall and the parapets in
places were low. We went the whole line of the trenches. When we came
to Captain McLaren's section one of our men was firing and I asked him
what was the matter. He said he was firing at a German who was digging
in a sap-head at the salient opposite, about four hundred yards off.
Our man was firing and missing, and every time he fired the German
waved a miss, as they do on the rifle butts with his shovel. Now
sapping is a most dangerous form of employment. It is dangerous for us
and it is our business to make it dangerous for the enemy who is
running the sap. What is a sap? Well, this kind of a sap was a
connecting trench which the Germans were running out from their line
so they could get closer to our line in order to start another line of
trenches, or else get close up with a lot of men to attack us. A
sapper works on a trench of this kind differently to the way he works
on an ordinary trench. He digs and picks ahead of him and throws the
loose earth on a blanket between his feet. This earth is carried away
in sand bags and put somewhere else, and there is nothing to show that
sapping is going on in your front unless an aeroplane detects it.
This sap was being run towards us along an irrigation ditch, and as
the German sapper could not see us for trees he did not know that
there was a point in our line from which we could see him. He was
something of a humorist and thought he was having a lot of fun at our
expense. Several shots from our men had failed to stop him. I tried
two shots but he still kept on waving the shovel. I gave the rifle to
Lieutenant Taylor at his request and pointed out the target. At his
first shot the German failed to signal a miss. The men congratulated
Taylor on scoring a hit, but he modestly remarked that it was a chance
shot and he did not think he had scored. From that time on Lt.
Williams-Taylor was a constant visitor in the trenches. He was in the
hottest part of the action at St. Julien, rifle in hand, fighting like
a hero.

In the first trenches we occupied the line consisted of two rows of
parapets. The front one was called the parapet, the rear the parado.
The latter was to protect the men from the "kick back" of the German
high explosive shells. This form of entrenchment has the disadvantage
that if the enemy gets over your front parapet he has a rear parapet
which he can use against