23 July 1915

We are now supplied with new kind of respirator – a flannel helmet saturated with chemical, and with sheet of mica to see through which fits over head and neck. Enemy supposed to be putting gas generators in position. On duty last night, attack expected but did not materialise. Kentish howitzers plugging away at intervals all night. Jerky rifle fire rising and falling spasmodically. The genuine attack rises in one loud rolling roar of rifle fire like a hail storm on iron roofs.

Unwanted Luxuries
Myself and Gil went down the hill
and bought two tins of peaches.
We ate one fill, but I got ill
And Gilly had dry reaches!
Sleep can only be matched for minutes at a time in the trenches, what with “stand to”, false alarms, and changing watch. To a drowsy ear the trench noises resemble the banging of doors, rattling of windows, and crackling of whips in a windy, rickety old house. Bought some curry roots from a cook of the Indian Mountain Battery. He pounded it up for me in his mortar – an unexploded shrapnel shell. Curry and rice for supper – fit for a king. Turks shelled and attacked Tommies this afternoon, on Left flank – repulsed with loss of 40 killed.