In the Brickstacks at Givenchy, 1916. The Germans were celebrating the
Kaiser's birthday by putting a steady succession of "Minnies" into and
around our front line trench.
Just when the strain was beginning to tell and nerves were getting
jumpy, a little Cockney corporal jumped on the fire-step and, shaking
his fist at the Germans forty yards away, bawled, "You wait till it's
_my_ ruddy birthday!"
Fritz didn't wait two seconds, but the little corporal had got his
laugh and wasn't taking a curtain.--_"Bison" (late R.W.F.)._
"Chuck us yer Name Plate!"
In June 1917 we were ordered to lay a line to the front line at "Plug
Street". Fritz started to bombard us with whizz-bangs, and my pal and
I took cover behind a heap of sandbags, noticing at the same time that
all the infantrymen were getting away from the spot.
When things quietened down we heard a Cockney voice shouting, "Hi,
mate! Chuck us yer name plate (identification disc). Y're sitting up
against our bomb store."--_S. Doust (late Signal Section, "F" Battery,
R.H.A.), 53 Wendover Road, Well Hall, Eltham, S.E.9._