The 1st Battalion at Wulvergem

Saturday 9th January 1915: As we related yesterday the 1st Battalion is in front line trenches near Wulvergem in Belgium. We have just spoken with the adjutant who told us: “The enemy have brought up a quick-firer, probably a motor gun (that is, mounted on a lorry), to within a few hundred yards of our trenches and is firing obliquely on them”.

“We have had seven men wounded. The ground in the direction of this gun is convex, that is, the gun is below a very slight hill, meaning we cannot bring effective rifle-fire to bear on it”.

“Earlier today we shot two Germans at close range who were moving along the parapet of their trench. Probably it was full of water, ours is and our trenches and those of the Germans are only about thirty yards apart in places. The men keep busy each night in endeavouring to bale water out of the trenches. They also have to revet the trenches after landslides caused by constant rain and unstable soil”.

It is sobering to those of us who have played cricket to imagine that the Germans are not much further away from our men than a batsman is from a bowler as he approaches the wicket.

Source: X550/2/5