November 22nd
I have just been out here one month today I have seen a few letters in a newspaper one fellow says he has been in the trenches 5 days and nights without being relieved, he was lucky, my company has been in 30 days and nights during that time we have had all kinds of weather, sometimes the water was up to our ankles, the last 7 days we have had snow and sharp frosts, we got relieved last night 21st November, we didn’t have such a bad time during that month, although there were a few attacks by the enemy which were repulsed every time, we lost 108 wounded and 16 killed, we had lots of chicken until they set fire to the farms around us…
…I am officers servant so I cook for him as well as myself one day they were sending shells over at the rate of 2 per minute I had chicken on a stove I had made out of a biscuit tin that day and I was very much afraid they would knock the lot over as the shells were knocking the top off my trench.
Diary of Private W Tapp, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, November 1914- January 1915
Imperial war Museum Archives