surprise upon the enemy now; he will not have time to locate them before
the great push. We are having the same artillery which did the job at
Messines.

"I spent yesterday afternoon sleeping. At dinner I found that
Second-Lieutenant Talbot Dickinson, M.C., had returned from leave. He
ought to have had his investiture while on leave, but, as there was not
one fixed at Buckingham Palace until a few days after the date on which
he should return, he had to come back without it.

"Yesterday evening I was supervising a working party under Sergeant
Noden, repairing the parapet of a trench. All was quiet while we were at
it; but I knew that a raid, about a mile away on our right, was fixed
for 1.30 this morning. So, my party having finished their job, I brought
them away at 1.20 and got them all back in their dug-outs by 1.30. Then,
just as I entered our Company Headquarters dug-out at 1.30, the peaceful
night was suddenly turned into hell. With a thunderous noise shells came
over from the German guns in hundreds. Our dug-outs seemed to be their
particular mark. ('When in doubt, shell Bilge!' was a maxim which
Bodington used to attribute to the enemy artillery opposite us.) The
place shook. Captain Blamey, Captain Bodington, Beesley, Dickinson and I
were inside. We began to think that the dug-out was going to be blown to
atoms; but we occupied ourselves by eating some of the parkin you sent!
The candles were twice blown out by the force of the exploding shells.
It seemed impossible that anything could live in such a bombardment.
After about ten minutes of this the others went out, saying that all the
officers in the Company should not crowd in the same dug-out during a
bombardment because if a shell were to blow the dug-out to pieces we
would all be knocked out, which would not do; so Dickinson and I alone
remained. I remarked to him that this was a pleasant welcome for him on
his return from leave! After 2 a.m. the bombardment began to slacken
down; and by 2.15 it was all over, and quiet reigned again. I noticed
that it had begun to rain. When we took stock we found that D Company
had not suffered a single casualty on this occasion! This struck me as
being extraordinary when one takes into consideration the fact that our
trench was simply packed like sardines with various returning working
parties which had all got congested here--working parties from various
companies and regiments; there were some Irish amongst them. It was