66
THE YPRES TIMES
Imperial War Museum} GERMAN LIQUID FIRE ATTACK. [Crown copyright
silence after we got into the line became uncanny. About an hour after we were
settled in, and the last of the 7th Battalion had disappeared into the darkness, I
decided that a bomb or two lobbed over into the Boche trench running close to
mine near the crater might disturb him if he were up to mischief there. Accor
dingly, I got one of the bombers to throw over a hand grenade; it seemed to carry
about the right length and it exploded well. We waited; no reply. At short
intervals he sent over two more. "This ought to rouse them," we said; again
no reply. There was something sinister about this.
It was now about half an hour before dawn, and at the order for stand-to"
I started on the extreme right of my bit of the line, to ensure that all my men were
lining the trench with their bayonets fixed. Working down gradually to the point
B, I decided to go on along the stretch of trench which bent back from the German
line almost in the form of a communication trench; there were servants and some
No. 3, and 2/Lieut. S. C. Woodroffe No. 4. A" Company was to hold the line
on the left, with my platoon on the right of our sector holding up to
'the left edge of the crater. No. 4 Platoon was on my left, and Nos. 1 and 3
in a trench running parallel to No. 4's bit, a few yards in rear of it. "C"
Company (Capt. E. F. Prior) was to hold the line on the right of the crater. B
and D Companies were in support, in trenches at the near edge of Zouave
Wood.
The relief was complete shortly after midnight. The night was ominously
quiet. There had been very little shelling on the way upfor which we were duly
thankful; but the absence of the sniper's bullet as we filed up the communication
trench from Zouave Wood was something more than surprising. The continued
