down again, but, even so, gas is bound to
get in. There are fresh gas casualties every day. The number is rising
rapidly. Giffin has, at last, reported sick with gas and has departed to
hospital to-day--another officer less! So now instead of having no
platoon at all I find myself in command of the two, 7 and 8!"

I never saw Lieutenant Giffin again. I shook hands with him in the
dug-out and said good-bye when he announced that he had reported sick
and was going down the line. He went away and never returned; I have
heard absolutely nothing of him since.

"Our guns have been blazing away all night, and are still pounding the
enemy lines. Our bombardment is now going full swing. But the Germans
are sending shells over too. Five B Company men were wounded by one
shell, just outside, this morning. One of them was Hartshorne. He has
got four shrapnel wounds and is off to hospital. I have been speaking to
him this afternoon. He said that they were hurting a little, but he
seemed quite happy about it. He said that he wished he was in hospital
in Middleton! It is nothing very serious; it should prove a nice
'Blighty' case!

"The padre is now back from hospital! He has not been there long, has
he?

"A few of those men who went to hospital with gas on July 13 were marked
for 'Blighty' and were just off, when General Jeudwine stopped them and
said that as few as possible from this Division must be sent home at
present. So, instead of going back, they have turned up here again as
'fit.' Hard luck!"

My diary of the same date (July 18) states that in the afternoon "I went
on a working party with Sergeant Clews and fifteen men. We were filling
in shell-holes on the road near St. Jean. After we had filled in a few
we got shelled. We took refuge behind an artillery dug-out for about an
hour. The shells were falling close all the time. One fell less than six
yards from me. I quite thought we were going to have some casualties,
but the only one we had was one man who got a scratch in the arm with a
piece of shrapnel. At 5.15 we decided to come back via a trench, as the
shelling was still going on. All got back safely. But it is most
disconcerting--one cannot go out on a little job like that in the
afternoon without having the wind put up us vertical! I had tea and
dinner. Then to bed. I felt very hot and could not get to sleep. Allen
returned from a working party at 10.15 p.m. There was a strafe on at
10.30; the German trenches w