Mudbags

Sunday 14th November 1915: The adjutant of the 1st Battalion tells us that memories of the atrocious conditions at the front last winter have been rekindled. The Battalion are in the front line on the Somme, near the village of Fricourt and the weather is bad. Landslides occur in the trenches due to the incessant rain and the parapets and trench walls collapse.

It has been found unsatisfactory to use sandbags to make revetments to shore up the trenches because the foundations subside causing the whole revetment to collapse which, of course, is dangerous for any man beneath it. Needless to say sandbags made on the spot should actually be called mudbags, they are slimy and slippery.

Source: X550/2/5