Pen and ink sketch by Weber of a church dated 1916–17.
Weber 1916–17.
"Our future, in short, depended on the observance of the 'Live and Let Live' principle, one of the soundest elements in trench war.Unfortunately it was not invariably observed. The Germans possessed a magnificent minenwerfer, well masked under the wreckage of a place known as Steam Mill. With this weapon they celebrated the new year and demonstrated that enormous explosions could be induced at any moment on Boesinghe Church and the parts adjacent. The crash of their presents was not in keeping with the evergreens that led along to the pretty bridge and winding water. Once or twice the operators amused themselves by lobbing their trench mortar bombs into the area of the Belgians . . ."
Edmund Blunden, English writer, recipient of the Military Cross, second lieutenant and adjutant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, writing of the period between Christmas, 1916 and New Years, 1917. The German minenwerfer was a trench mortar, Boesinghe a village in Ypres, Belgium. The Belgian army held the line on the British left.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden, page 154, copyright © the Estate of Edmund Blunden, 1928, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: November 1928
1916-12-31, 1916, December, New Year, New Year's Eve, Weber church
