hrough a communication trench and then a long
tunnel through the rock, named by our troops the Severn Tunnel. This
tunnel was full of water and many worse things, and it was impossible to
clean it out properly. The unfortunate telephonists off duty had to
live and sleep in it. The O.P. was a cramped, little, stinking place at
the far end of the tunnel, shared with the Italians, undoubtedly visible
and well known to the enemy, and with practically no view. The Major, by
his usual skilful diplomacy, soon arranged that we should man Claud
permanently, but Ascot never.

My only pleasant recollection of Ascot is that once, about midnight, as
we were keeping watch together, a young Italian gunner from the Romagna
sang to me.

"'Addio, mia bell', addio!'
Cantava nel partir la gioventu,
Mentre gl' imboscati si stavano
Divertire, giornale in mano
E la sigaretta.
Per noi l'assalto
Alla baionetta!
Come le mosche noi dobbiam morir,
Mentre gl' imboscati si stanno a divertir."[1]

[Footnote 1:

"Good-bye, my darling, good-bye!"
Sang the young men as they went away,
While the imboscati were standing about
To amuse themselves, with a newspaper in their hand
And a cigarette.
For us the bayonet charge!
Like flies we must die.
While the imboscati stand about to amuse themselves.

This is one of many front line versions of a patriotic drawing-room
song. It has an admirable tune.]

He sang me also another longer song, composed by a friend of his, which
is not fit for reproduction.

* * * * *

We experienced great variations of weather on the Plateau. When we first
arrived in March the snow was in full thaw, and every road a sunlit,
rushing torrent. We climbed about at that time in gum boots. Later it
snowed again heavily and often. Sometimes for several days running we
were enveloped in a thick mist, and then suddenly it would clear away.
Once, I remember, it cleared at night, and one saw the full moon rising
through the pine trees into an utterly clear, ice-cold sky, and under
one's feet the hard snow scrunched and glittered in the moonlight.
British, French and Italian Batteries were all mixed together in this
sector. On our left came first another British Battery, then two French,
one in front of the road and one behind it, then another British, then
an Italian. On our right, slightly more forward, the Headquarters of an
Italian He