s scrap iron lying about. During
this tour in the line which lasted eight days, I was employed in
looking after the observers and the two Brigade bomb stores. Towards
the close of our stay I started to make a new bomb store in Hexham
Road. Capt. H. Liddell gave me the general design of it and told me
what materials I should require. But I had no more time than to get
the emplacement dug out and the wooden framework erected.[13] I
remember that we struck two buried Germans in excavating the
emplacement and had to treat them with some very powerful corrosive
before the work could be continued.

Also it was rather a warm corner in Hexham Road, and I caught a shell
splinter on the leg; this, however, struck the steel buckle on my
trench boot and only raised a bruise. The weather became very cold
towards the end of our stay, with snow and frost. The Germans opposite
our trenches were not disposed to be unfriendly about the New Year. On
the left near the Butte they signalled to our men in the trenches
before a trench-mortar bombardment started, as if to warn them to take
cover. On the right they were still more inclined to fraternise. Here
both sides were holding trenches that would have become impossible if
any sniping had been done. So both our men and the Germans worked away
at deepening their own trenches without molesting their opponents;
although sometimes a crowd of men were exposed from the waist upwards
at a range of about 200 yards.

It was one of those curious understandings which arise when no violent
operations are in progress. However, on New Year's Day it went even
further. A soldier of the 5th N.F., after signals from the Germans,
went out into No Man's Land and had a drink with a party of them.
After this a small party of the enemy approached our trenches without
arms and with evidently friendly intentions. But they were warned off
and not allowed to enter our trenches. This little affair, I believe,
led to the soldier being court-martialled for holding intercourse with
the enemy. After eight days in the line the Brigade returned to a camp
at the north end of Mametz Wood. B.H.Q. were close to a battery of
9-inch howitzers, and when these heavy guns fired a salvo, which they
did occasionally both day and night, it fairly lifted the things off
the table. We got shelled here one night, but beyond getting a shower
or two of splinters and stones on to the huts no damage was done. I
had now time to ramble round,