A quiet night. Went my rounds this morning. Still water in places. It’s cold in the cellar in the daytime. We can’t have fire owing to the smoke, but I daresay healthier than a heated atmosphere. The transport are about two miles from M­­­­_____ [Mesnil] at the place we go to for our rest when we go out of the line on Wednesday. All ranks will get steel helmets in time. We have been lucky again in the weather this time, though some fearful days. A quiet day. Our Heavies active and hurling big stuff over us, making a fearful noise. The trenches are improving. Everyone has worked hard on them, but water still in many of them. The mining expert, after earnest investigation, decides against the theory of the caves being mined and the men have returned to them. Two men slightly wounded are our casualties, so far, this time in. We have begun making a new H.Q. down here, big dug-out with wonderful steel arched roof, called an elephant. We have got two for H.Q. Neither Bull or I like the cellar, it could be made quite impossible any time. The men’s food arrives hot, in spite of being carried 1½ miles up trenches, many of them 1ft. in water.

‘The Dismantled Elephant, an Iron Hut in the Throes of Dissolution’ by Eric Henri Kennington