heavy, and since there was no passage from the
front British trench to the captured portion of the German except
across the open of the 'neutral' ground, most of the wounded and all
the killed had had to remain under such cover as could be found in the
wrecked trench. The position of the unwounded was bad enough and
unpleasant enough, but it was a great deal worse for the wounded. A
bad wound damages mentally as well as physically. The 'casualty' is
out of the fight, has had a first field dressing placed on his wound,
has been set on one side to be removed at the first opportunity to the
dressing station and the rear. He can do nothing more to protect
himself or take such cover as offers. He is in the hands of the
stretcher-bearers and must submit to be moved when and where they think
fit. And in this case the casualties did not even have the
satisfaction of knowing that every minute that passed meant a minute
farther from the danger zone, a minute nearer to safety and to the
doctors, and the hospitals' hope of healing. Here they had to be
throughout the long day, hearing the shriek of each approaching shell,
waiting for the crash of its fall, wondering each time if _this_ one,
the rush of its approach rising louder and louder to an appalling
screech, was going to be the finish--a 'direct hit.' Many of the
wounded were wounded again, or killed as they lay; and from others the
strength and the life had drained slowly out before nightfall. But now
that darkness had come the casualties moved out and the supports moved
in. From what had been the German second trench, and on this portion
of front was now their forward one, lights were continually going up
and bursts of rifle and machine-gun fire were coming; and an occasional
shell still whooped up and burst over or behind the captured trench.
This meant that the men--supports, and food and water carriers, and
stretcher-bearers--were under a dangerous fire even at night in
crossing the old 'neutral' ground, and it meant that one of the first
jobs absolutely necessary to the holding of the captured trench was the
making of a connecting path more or less safe for moving men,
ammunition, and food by night or day.

This, then, was the position of affairs when 'A' section of the
Southland Company of Engineers came up to take a hand, and this
communication trench was the task that Sapper Duffy, J., found himself
set to work on. Personally Sapper Duffy knew nothing of,