An attack was expected, and some men were kept in reserve in an
underground excavation more closely resembling a tunnel than a trench.
After about twenty hours' waiting in knee-deep mud and freezing cold,
they were relieved by another group.
As they were filing out one of the relief party said to one of those
coming out, "Who are you?"
"'Oo are we?" came the reply. "Cahn't yer see we're the fust 'ouse
comin' aht o' the pit?"--_K. Haddon, 379 Rotherhithe New Road, North
Camberwell, S.E.16._