g work. No sooner was one parapet fairly complete than
another fell in; and when this was mended the first one would collapse
again under the incessant downpour. And all this time wire
entanglements had to be put up in front under hostile fire, trenches
connected up and drained, support trenches dug, communication trenches
improved, loopholes made, defences thickened and strengthened, saps
pushed out, all under the fire of an enemy anything from 60 to 200
yards off, and always on rather higher ground than ourselves, worse
luck, so that he had the whip-hand.

Soon came the period of hand grenades, in which he had six to one the
best of us in numbers; and then in rifle grenades ditto ditto; and
then in trench mortars, flare-lights, searchlights, and
rockets--wherein we followed him feebly and at a great distance; for
where he sent up 100 (say) light balls at night, we could only afford
five or six; and other things in proportion. Later on came the
Minenwerfer, an expanded type of trench mortar, and its bomb, but up
to the end of February his efforts in this direction were not very
serious, though I allow that he did us more harm thereby than we him.
For our trench mortars were in an experimental stage, made locally by
the R.E., and constructed of thin gas-pipe iron and home-made jam-pot
bombs, whose behaviour was always erratic, and sometimes, I regret to
say, fatal to the mortarist. (Poor Rogers, R.E., a capital subaltern,
was killed thus, besides others, I fear.)

Our reliefs varied. Normally the Brigade was supposed to be, at first,
eight days in and four days out. Then this was rapidly changed to
twelve days in and six days out; then, as the 14th Brigade suggested
that it should hold Neuve Eglise, a quite short front, in perpetuity,
whilst the 13th and 15th Brigades relieved each other alternate eight
days along the long front, it was changed nominally to eight in and
eight out. But it was not always possible, and our last tour lasted
twenty days in and only three out.

The reliefs made one's head whirl. It was all right to start with, two
battalions in the trenches (_i.e._, fire-trenches, support-trenches,
and reserve-trenches), and two battalions in reserve at Dranoutre or
thereabouts--four days about, each battalion, in eight-day reliefs, or
three days about in twelve-day reliefs. This was simple. But when our
line was lengthened to a three-battalion length it became much more
difficult, especially when one batt