The safety of the trenches

"Set out on a three day march carrying all our belongings and equipment. We arrived... on the Saturday evening very tired and foot-sore and almost immediately set about making preparations for the trenches."

"Our overcoats and all changes of underclothing and odd things like boot and button cleaning gear, balaclava caps etc were packed in valises, labelled and stacked away."

"On Sunday morning our Company, 16th Waikato, set out for the front line about six miles away and got into our places somewhere about mid-day. We were holding a piece of new trench that had recently been dug in front of our own wiring... It was deep and narrow... I fancy the enemy did not know we were holding it because most of his shells were going over into our old front line and into the saps or communication trenches up which the food and supplies are brought... We had to spend practically all our time in the trench..."

"The trench being deep and narrow was rather awkward to live in but very safe as a shell had to land practically right in the trench to do us any harm. We had to be very careful not to make any extra noise or to show anything above the parapet for fear the enemy should guess where we were. We left the front line again on Wednesday evening, the advance taking place the next morning."