A gas attack

"During the night we were busy getting everything ready - filling water bottles and stacking away biscuits and tins of bully beef in every spare corner of our haversacks, being issued with shovels, picks, wire-cutters, bombs, flares etc. The picks and shovels are carried on the back, the handle being pushed down behind the straps of the web equipment."

"I managed to get a few winks of sleep about midnight but was quickly roused to put on my gas helmet. Fritz was sending over a number of gas shells trying to catch the batteries near us. Some of them burst quite near part of the trench and some of the boys were gassed before they could put their masks on. It was pitiful to see the poor fellows as they were helped along on their way to the doctor."