One night, while going round the line at Loos, I was accompanied by
Sergeant Winslow, who was a London coster before the war.
We were examining the field of fire of a Lewis gun, when the Germans
opened up properly on our sector. Clouds of smoke rose from the
surrounding trenches, crash after crash echoed around the old Loos
crassier, and night was turned into day by Verey lights sent up by both
sides.
Suddenly a lad of 18, just out, turned to Sergeant Winslow, and in a
quivering voice said: "My God, sergeant, this is awful!"
Sergeant Winslow replied: "Now, look 'ere, me lad, you'd have paid 'alf
a dollar to take your best gal to see this at the Crystal Palace before
the war. What are yer grousing abaht?"--_A. E. Grant (late 17th Welch
Regt.), 174 Broom Road, Teddington._