Extract from a diary 'A Quiet Day in the Ypres Sector 1916' by Lieutenant Harris

Extract from a diary ‘A Quiet Day in the Ypres Sector 1916’ by Lieutenant Harris. Lt Harris describes a quiet day in the Ypres sector 1916. He starts at dawn, describing tired men down in the dug-out tired and asleep after a tour of duty throughout the night having to carry out jobs that can only be done in cover of darkness, such as repairing the wire. There are periods of silence where morning, afternoon and evening activities of eating meals, ablutions, trench duties, rifle inspections, writing letters are carried out, these are broken up by rifle fire, machine gun fire and shells passing overhead. The excerpt ends with Lt Harris wondering whether the following day will bring relief, either in the form of a return to Blighty or a free warrant to the next world.