No diary entries.

Deadlock. For the next ten days the wet weather set in. In the trenches of the Valley of the Aisne the Germans were being reinforced and their defences strengthened.

The British were bombarded by heavy howitzer shells and the casualties mounted. The men were caked in chalky mud and most regiments were no more than shadows of what they had been. Only scanty reinforcements had come up. The men were short of guns, gun ammunition and machine guns; they had no searchlights, trench mortars, grenades or barbed wire.

As the days went by things settled down to some kind of daily routine. Letters – such as the censor might pass – could be written home. But there was no chance of progress. Most casualties were caused when fetching water and rations from the villages below.