I lost a few good chums. My ’listing chum was almost blown to pieces.
He belonged to Newcastle, and was always laughing. He had to be buried
under shell fire. We had many a good starving for water, food, and
tobacco. Talking about tobacco, we had to smoke our tea. I smoked two
tea allowances, and we had a tin box of tea leaves, which we took out
of a kettle, drying it on our trench tops. Now a little about the
trenches. Robinson Crusoe wasn’t in it. Our regiment was in them eight
days without a hot drink, without a wash, shave, or a decent bit of
food. We could not get stuff up there, as there was too much shell fire
from the German side, and our transport could not get stuff up as the
bridge over the Aisne was broken: _Pte. Gray, Northumberland Fusiliers_.