There was a Frenchman hit by a shell, so me and “Smosh” got a stretcher
and ran out and fetched him to safety, and the shells were bursting all
around us. But we have been lucky enough to miss them up to now. It
isn’t war out here; it’s murder: _Pte. W. Commons, Royal Army Medical
Corps_.
Sniping!
The Germans have some very good snipers, but the Duke’s have better.
We used to take it in turn to do sniping. It is just like going out
rabbit-shooting. You see a German crawl out of his trench, up goes your
rifle and over he rolls. Then you say, “That’s a bit of our own back
for the way you have been treating the French people”: _Sergt. Clark,
Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry_.
The Bayonet!
One night after a very hard day in the trenches, when we were wet
to the skin, we had lighted fires to dry our tunics, and were at it
when we heard firing along our front, and then the Germans came at
us like madmen. We had to tackle them in our shirt-sleeves. It was
mainly bayonet work, and hard work at that: _Corporal Casemont, Irish
Fusiliers_.