Hun airmen drop messages into Poperhinghe to the effect that he will drive out British from Ypres Salient before 9th.
Saturday 12 February 1916 – rain and fair
Early this morning the Huns take a few trenches from the British troops near Ypres. Our artillery pound the devil out of the Huns making hellish roar and din. We retake trenches. Aeroplane fights numerous all day.
Friday 14 January 1916 – Fair, Rain at night
To Hd. Qrt in morning & shaved Sgt MacCord. Heavy shelling on both sides. To no 2 Coy in the trenches. We (PP’s) using Rifle grenades. Huns retaliate by using same + shells of High Explosives. Am lucky again a shell bursts in Communication trench just as I am going through. Splinters & fragments fly all around. Our Lyddite shells blow up sections of German trench & a Hun is seen in the air with it. The firing line is a series of dug outs & fairly comfortable save for the mud.
* Lyddite shells- British explosive shells filled with the compound lyddite. Invented in 1896, they were the first ever British High Explosive shell. Lyddite is a picric acid that is allowed to solidify so that it is easily detonated. After the shell hit its target the Lyddite explodes, sending fragments of the shell and shrapnel in all directions.
