Excerpts from the book

December 7th
Soaking wet day and alas the trenches tonight. Wood and I managed, by making ourselves charming to a S.M. of the A.S.C. to get a little paraffin. All the ‘A’ company officers had a most excellent lunch at an estaminet. I determined to get a conveyance of sorts to carry some of the men’s extra blankets and odds and ends of things that make life bearable in these saddened trenches, and to have if possible something dry when we get there after a four mile march in a drenching downpour, with mud over our ankles all the way. Commandeer an old horse and if possible an older brougham. The springs on one side were broken, likewise both windows. A Belgian boy as a driver. Ten minutes after it arrived at the billet, it was loaded sky high. Frying pans and pots were tied on to the handles of the doors, neither of which would open. Inside were blankets and sacks, a lusty cockerel or two, and some rabbits or Belgian hares, and the whole in charge of Jimmy Long, Wood’s servant and also the company wit. They were loudly cheered going through the village. They started 3 hours in advance and got there half an hour before us, after one of the most thrilling adventures (as told by Jimmy Long) ever recorded. The crazy cart tipped over once and blocked the narrow lane against a battery of artillery returning to their snug billets for the night. Long seems to have given the officer in charge a good piece of his mind under cover of the darkness. The cocks crowed all the way, and the pots and pans, banging against each other were sufficient warning for miles. Long was much more mud than clothes, but cheery as a lark. The horse ‘A company pet’ as Long christened him, was none the worse and was found later having a good meal on the company ration biscuits.

December 11th
It rained all night and the whole of today. When
I went round the sentries I found them quite resigned to another flood. They were amused. One Pte. Carter said “it will lay the dust, sir, won’t it?” at which I laughed heartily and so did they. But poor fellows they were on their last legs for this trench trip. Cave had to spend the day and night in my dug out as his was flooded. Thanks to my Black Hat gang of the deepest drinkers and worst of characters (in peace time) in the company, my dug out was the only one dry. The men are trying to build dug outs with sandbags only.

Christmas Day 1914
Private Harry Morgan pinched himself again- he had now been in France for nearly two months and after the hell of life in the trenches he had found the whole experience unbelievable. Before dusk, one of his officers came through the trenches Father Christmas-like, presenting every soldier with a gift from H.R.H. the Princess Mary: an embossed box, which contained a pipe, six cigarettes, an ounce of tobacco, a tinder lighter, a Christmas card and a photo of the Princess and the King. “Bless her heart” he murmured in appreciation.
In Leutnant Zehmisch’s section of No Man’s Land, one of his subalterns, N.C.O. Holland took three photographs of mixed groups of English and German troops. Not long afterwards, a couple from ‘C’ Company brought out a football and using caps as goalposts started an impromptu and rigorous ‘international’ match. Handshakes followed and an honourable draw agreed until they returned to their trenches when, of course, victory was claimed.
In the late afternoon, efforts were made to arrange a grand Boxing Day match between the best players from the English and German Companies. Zehmisch regretted that a fixture might not be possible as he and his Company were scheduled to be relieved and a new officer would be in command.
Sergeant Philpotts engaged in a conversation with a German soldier who had been a chef in Birmingham and had left his wife and five children there when he travelled to the Front.
After dusk, soldiers on both sides mulled over what had happened. Tapp and three other officers’ servants were of one mind that it had been an extraordinary day. He was amazed at how different it had been to recent Christmas Days he had spent, especially the one in 1910 when he had stood under the mistletoe with the girl he later married. The fraternisation in No Man’s Land had been ‘strange and unbelievable’. He had been struck by the superb Christmas lunch they had concocted and said to his colleagues- ‘I hope everyone back home in England has as good food for their Christmas Day.’