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Updated: June 27, 2025
The trenches opposite were well wired in and strongly manned, and the attack by B Company on the 23rd was held up within 100 yards of the objective by intense trench-mortar and machine-gun fire and artillery barrage, and the two platoons were compelled to withdraw to their original line after suffering 32 casualties.
The wire again caused a serious check, but by 5 p.m. was penetrated, but there was still 300 yards to be traversed before reaching the enemy's front trenches, and when crossing this part continuous trench-mortar and machine-gun fire came from the enemy's left flank, which was not being attacked.
Rifles cracked, bullets zip-zipped along the top of the parapet, great shells whistled over our heads or tore immense holes in the trenches, trench-mortar projectiles and hand-grenades were hurled at us, and yet there was not a living soul to be seen across the narrow strip of No-Man's-Land, whence all this murderous rain of steel and lead was coming.
Not only large oil-cans, full of explosives, came over both by day and by night, but a horrible 9-inch trench-mortar now made its appearance and blew large craters in the C.T.s and supports. I had two of the oil-cans pretty close to me at different times, and they were not pleasant.
'Why not try the trench-mortar? asked the Brigade; to which the harassed Colonel replied conclusively because he didn't possess one, hadn't a bomb for one, and hadn't a man or officer who knew how to use one. The Brigade apparently learnt this with surprise, and replied vaguely that steps would be taken, and that an officer and detachment of his battalion must receive a course of instruction.
The sudden explosions of whizz-bangs, the increasing whine and fearful bursts of crumps, and, worst of all, the black trench-mortar bombs that came hurtling and twisting down from the skies, kept the nerves at a pitch which allowed of no clear vision of the smashed trench and the wounded men.
And the O.C., looking at the trench-mortar being prepared, made a mental remark about 'the mouths of babes' and the wise words thereof. The weapon is easily described. It was a mere cylinder of cast iron, closed at one end, open at the other, and with a roomy 'touch-hole' at the closed end.
Of course we dropped down quickly into the trench, but L.-C. Austin waved his cap over the top to signal a 'miss. He told me it would never do to let the German sniper think he had scored a hit. The 'flying pig, our large trench-mortar, was first used in a bombardment of the German trenches here, and I believe our Stokes mortar battery did a record rate of fire on the same occasion.
For obvious reasons, it is not advisable to fire a trench-mortar too often at any rate from the same place. But the whole weight of public opinion in our trench is directed against it being fired from anywhere at all.
It was not the time or place to hang about, so I hurried to the trench-mortar pit to finish my scenes whilst daylight lasted. I met the officer in charge of the T.M. "Keep your head down," he shouted, as I turned round a traverse. "Our parapet has been practically wiped out, and there is a sniper in the far corner of the village.
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