We get our
rations sent up once a day in the dark, and two men creep out to cook
tea in the quiet intervals. Tea is the great mainstay on service, just
as it was on manoeuvres. The men are splendid, and as happy as
schoolboys, and we've got plenty of straw at the bottom of the trench,
which is better than any feather bed. We only had one pelting night, and
we've had three or four fine days. We have not seen any German infantry
from this trench, only one patrol and a sniper or two. Their guns, too,
are out of sight, but hardly a mile away.
Our first day's real close-up fighting was the 19th. We cavalry went on
about a day and a half in front of the infantry. We got into a village,
and our advanced patrols started fighting hard, with a certain amount of
fire from everywhere in front of us. Our advanced patrols gained the
first group of houses, and we joined them. Firing came from a farm in
front of us, and then a man came out of it and waved a white flag. I
yelled, "Two hundred; white flag; rapid fire." But ---- wouldn't let us
fire. Then the squadron advanced across the root fields toward the farm
(dismounted, in open order), and they opened a sharp fire on us from the
farm. We took three prisoners in the roots, and retired to the houses
again. That was our first experience of the white flag dodge; we lost
two killed and one wounded.
Then I got leave to make a dash across a field, for another farm where
they were sniping at us.
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