Thursday August 10, 1916

Went out last night out the southern way by way of Ridgewood and the Brasserie out to the R8 trenches, then we went overland, (always a dangerous job) to the new trench being built. We filled sand bags, and ducked hails of machine gun bullets for about two hours. We were late on the job so didn't do much.

Fritzie seemed to be very inquisitive with his machine gun last night. He would search the ground with them till he had us all hiding in shell holes; (thank God for shell holes). Then he would try to dig us out of the shell holes, but nuthin' doin' Fritzie. I felt like a patient in the dentist's chair. The dentist is after him with that pesky little drill and he has squirmed himself into the smallest corner in that chair, and still that relentless little drill follows him in.

The biggest part of the job is getting there and back. A man walks from ten to fourteen miles every night besides his work.