English: British Vickers machine gun crew wearing PH-type anti-gas helmets. Near Ovillers during the Battle of the Somme, July 1916. The gunner is wearing a padded waistcoat, enabling him to carry the machine gun barrel. See Image:Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks rear view.jpg for an alternate view of this crew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Our first injury was someone who got kicked in the jaw by a milking cow

It was making such a noise because it hadn’t been milked and this lad went over. It broke his jaw. That was our first Blighty one.

Our first casualty was a young section officer

Lieutenant Spanky Meadows from Dundee was shot through the head on the 15th April 1916. Before it got dark you fitted a muzzle attachment to the end of the machine gun. You didn’t want to give your position away; everyone had it in for the machine gunner. It was a stovepipe extension that concealed sparks from the end of the gun during night fighting.

In spite of all the warnings Spanky stuck his head up and got a bullet through it. Spanky was fiddling on with the muzzle cup in this Sap. Instead of pulling the gun down to take a look he got up and ‘crack’ he got a bullet through the head.

The Germans took sniping seriously.

They issued far more telescopic sights than the British. There were men were picked off while using a latrine SAP which the Germans could identify then target. They didn’t tell your Mother that in a letter home.