I was the next turn on guard at a battery position in Armentières one
evening in the summer of 1917. A Cockney chum, whom I was going to
relieve, was patrolling the position when suddenly over came a 5·9,
which blew him about four yards away.
As he scrambled to his feet our sergeant of the guard came along,
and my chum's first words were, "Sorry, sergeant, for deserting me
post."--_T. F. Smithers (late R.F.A.), 14 Hilda Road, Brixton, S.W.9._