TCD MS 10853 folio 85 recto
[1915]
black and muddy stuff but didn’t taste so bad when boiled and tea put in.
We didn’t get any sleep hardly at night as we were obliged to keep awake. The men were numbered 1,2, 1,2, 1,2, and so on and when we relieved the Scottish we all “stood to”, at the parapet. Then the order would come along “No 1’s up[“] and No. 1 would be standing up taking occasional glances over the parapet and shooting and No. 2 could sit down and smoke but not sleep. The nights were frosty and our puttees already wet with our journey up froze to our legs. When I was “up” I used to fire a good deal to keep my rifle hot so that I could warm my hands on it and would generally get through 100 rounds in the night and 80 or so in the day. I fired fairly high often over the hill in the hope of a stray bullet finding a suitable billet, as many