Frosty again and a bitter N.E. wind today. Another strafe this a.m. by our guns; all sorts. Our snipers got to work last tour and fairly silenced the Bosche ones. Up to that we lost a man a day from them, and last tour they never even fired. We had four pairs of ours at work, one with telescope observing (only 80 yards off) and one with telescopic rifle. Result was we outed quite a lot of Bosche. Young Shill. is extraordinarily accurate and reliable. Wonderful good head on such young shoulders. A howling bitter N.E. blast that cuts one in two. The 12^th had a few casualties from T.M.’s [trench mortars] today. This hard weather seems prevalent everywhere. I still don’t see how the war will last beyond this year. Stronge is busy ploughing and is well forward. We found two old derelict ploughs and a barrow. Bde. mess was only 6 fcs. a day last month. My strictures on liqueurs had some effect.