Further south the two opposing lines were almost parallel as far as the
vicinity of Watling Street--then a Boche trench. In the dead ground
behind our line was Euston Dump, which had gone up with a tremendous
roar in the early days of the March fighting, leaving a large hole.
Stoke's mortar shells, "footballs," etc., were scattered about in all
directions. Not far away from here was the Sugar Factory, which, from
the attention it received, the Hun regarded as more important than we
did.
The C.O. maintained his policy of worrying the Hun in every possible
manner, the fullest use being made of the artillery liaison officers and
the Stokes and Newton trench mortars for this purpose. Every night
little strafes were planned which must have kept Fritz in a constant
state of speculation as to what might happen next. To assist in these
annoying tactics a special company of R.E., whose particular devilry was
gas, came up and dug in 1,000 gas projectiles behind the support lines.
On two separate nights, after everything had been considered favourable,
they gleefully let them off at La Signy Farm and its environs, and then
disappeared down their dug-outs to gloat over the picture of choking and
writhing Huns. We consoled ourselves with the probability that the enemy
had sustained more casualties than we had.
On July 8th Corps had a sudden recurrence of "attackitis," and,
doubtless at the instigation of a junior intelligence officer, they sent
out a frantic request to "all whom it may concern" to ascertain who the
enemy were in front.
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