But up at the Bluff conditions were terrible. The
trenches had disappeared under repeated bombardments, and had become
mere chains of shell holes in which the men stood up to their thighs in
liquid mud. When the C.O. arrived to take over the headquarters' dug-out
he found it blown to pieces. Within lay the bodies of the previous
occupants--four officers. Another dug-out was finally found. It was deep
in a bank at the end of a narrow passage twenty feet long. Within was a
chamber six feet long, four broad and four high, and in this place, so
horribly like a grave, the C.O., second-in-command, and adjutant lived
for three days and four nights. A candle gave light, and whenever a
shell burst above the flame jerked out. The sergeant-major and the
orderlies and servants lived in the tunnel, squatting on their haunches
in the mud. Outside there were no other dug-outs at all. The shelling
was continuous, but the cold was far worse. Men sank in the mud and
remained motionless for hours. Many fell into shell holes and had to be
hauled out with twisted telephone wires. The wounded suffered horribly.
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