During the battle of the Somme, in September 1916, our Lewis gun post
was in a little loop trench jutting out from the front line at a place
called, I believe, Lone Tree, just before Combles. Jerry's front line
was not many yards away, and it was a very warm spot.
Several casualties had occurred during the morning through sniping,
and one enterprising chap had scored a bull's-eye on the top of our
periscope.
Things quietened down a bit in the afternoon, and about 4 p.m. our
captain, who already had the M.C., came along and said to our corporal,
"I believe the Germans have gone."
A Cockney member of our team, overhearing this, said, "Well, it won't
take long to find out," and jumping upon the fire-step exposed himself
from the waist upwards above the parapet.
After a minute's breathless silence he turned to the captain and said,
with a jerk of his thumb, "They've hopped it, sir."
That night we and our French friends entered Combles.--_M. Chittenden
(late "C" Coy., 1/16th London Regt., Q.W.R.), 26 King Edward Road,
Waltham Cross, Herts._