enches at Hill 60
again for three days. I went up early in the day and 'took over' the
various bombing arrangements. The trenches now included some on the
south side of the Railway Cutting, and I had my dugout there in the
top of a small hillock called the 'Mound.' From 7.30 P.M. to 10 P.M.
that night the trenches and Cutting were heavily bombarded, but the
relief was not much delayed. The 7th N.F., however, had great luck in
having only two men wounded whilst coming in. They were unfortunate
casualties, it is true, 2nd-Lieut. J.H.C. Swinney[4] and Sergt.
Dorgan, both good men and a loss to the battalion. The next three days
were bad days for us. The battalion had over fifty casualties, much
above the average. Four days in the line generally gave about seven or
eight casualties. On March 25 British mines were exploded at St. Eloi,
and the mine craters were occupied by the 3rd Division. The explosion
took place just before dawn, about a mile or more to the south, but it
woke me all of a shake. I thought at first that I was going to tumble
down into the Cutting the ground heaved and rocked so much. The German
heavy artillery took the precaution of bombarding our part of the
front, and caused many casualties and much damage in the front line.
The whole of C Company batmen were killed by a shell, and 2nd-Lieut.
Burt, a new arrival but an old friend, was also killed. Poor lad, he
was always certain that he would be killed as soon as he got out to
France! I saw in the trenches a pile of our dead, three or four deep,
waiting for removal to the rear. The shelling was severe at times
during the next two days. Lieut. Platt, a forward observing officer of
the 50th Divisional Artillery and a well known and welcome figure in
the trenches, was killed by a shell just below my own dugout. We had
cause, indeed, to remember our last visit to Hill 60. During this
visit I first met some Canadian officers who were looking over the
line before taking it over from the 50th Division.

On March 27 we were relieved and I went back with A Company to some
dugouts near Bedford House. Our first day there we were shelled out of
these dugouts and had to take refuge for a time in Bedford House. A
Belgian battery had just arrived close to us, and unfortunately they
gave the position away. In the afternoon I went a long round to
various reserve bomb stores to check the stores. Next night I paid a
last visit to the Cutting at Hill 60 with a working-party.