Allied soldiers fortifying shell craters after an advance. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot, 1918 Edition.
A startling new situation confronted the Allies in their recent advance against the Germans. They are fortifying in a concealed way chains of shell craters due to intensive artillery firing of months.
"June 23rd, a quiet day, and fresh after rain. The Battle of Arras has fizzled out, but the Division has a programme of mild counter-irritants and blood-lettings. Another bombing of Tunnel Trench is on the bill. First the G.O.C. said that The Cams. would crack the shell and we would get the yolk, then that they were to make June 24th—one bite of it. They didn't. At midnight they bumped on to manned shell-holes in front of uncut wire. Fritz has become an artist in shell-hole defence. An enterprising platoon could walk out and pull up a lot of his wire, but——"
Extract from the entry for June 24, 1917 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. The Battle of Arras was launched on April 9, 1917, and was suspended May 5. The capture of Vimy Ridge was its greatest success; otherwise, like the Nivelle Offensive, of which it was the British component, the attack was a failure. The G.O.C. is the General Officer Commanding; The Cams, the Cameronians, the Scottish Rifles.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 359, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1917-06-24, 1917, June, Battle of Arras, Arras, defence, shell hole, shell-hole defence, shell hole defence, fortified crater
