It was in the morning after "stand down," when our rum issue had been
passed, that we learned what the racket had been the previous night. The
Germans had tried a night attack on the King's Royal Rifles.
The morning was cold and misty. It was easy to see that we were about six
hundred yards from Fritz's trenches, and that his, like ours, were on
slightly higher ground than that which lay between the lines. There was a
farm house here and there, behind us.
I could see a line of trenches on either flank but the one on the right
was most easily perceptible. There was an open space at the end of our
battalion line on the right flank, and our left flank was bent back
slightly. We also learned that we had moved into this position without the
Huns knowing that we were near. I could see the boche balloons some
distance behind the enemy lines.