Dorset man was literally almost drowned and drawn forth with
great difficulty. Many cases occurred of semi-submersion, and as for
moving up the communication trenches during the winter, it was
generally an impossibility, for they were either knee-deep in water or
in mud, and simply refused to be drained. So men preferred the risk of
a stray bullet to the certainty of liquid mud to the knees and
consequent icy discomfort for twenty-four hours and more. And as for
the unfortunate ration-parties and men bringing up heavy trench
stores, their task was really one of frightful labour, for, for two
men to cross a large and slippery muddy series of fields carrying a
100 lb. box between them was no joke. First one would slide up and
skate off in one direction whilst the other did his best to hold on,
generally resulting in dropping his end of the box or finding himself
on the flat of his back. Then the parts would be reversed, but they
always slid up in opposite directions--the mud saw to that,--and they
would arrive in the trenches, after their stroll of a mile or less,
absolutely exhausted and dripping with sweat. It was difficult enough,
over much of the ground, to avoid slipping up even when burdened by
nothing more than a walking-stick; that I know from personal
experience. Yet for many weeks the men had to do this and suffer, for
fascines and bricks, besides sandbags, were only just beginning to
make their appearance in December; and floor-boards and gratings and
gravel and trench stores and wire-netting, and revetments and planks
and iron sheeting and trestles and hurdles of all sorts, did not
really materialize in anything like sufficient numbers till March.

The draining of the trenches was heartbreaking. After a heavy day or
two of rain the parapets would fall down in hunks into the foot of
water or so in the trenches, and would churn up into liquid mud, only
to be removed by large spoons, of which we had none, or buckets, of
which we had but very few. It was too thick to drain off down the
very, very gradual slopes which were the best we could do, and too
liquid to be shovelled away; so there it would remain, and our
strenuous efforts in rebuilding the parapets (for at this period we
had no revetting material) would only result, a night or two later, in
still further collapses.

The R.E. companies, both 17th and 59th, worked like heroes, and so
particularly did the Norfolks and Bedfords; but it was most
disheartenin