Private G. Cox, of a Company, Ist Norfolk Regiment, in a very interesting letter to his wife and children, who live at 68, Beech Road, Luton, says "Trench work is very nerve breaking, for at least the enemy shell our trenches with Jack Johnsons, which break our trenches down and bury some of our poor fellows alive.  Only the other day a Jack Johnson fell in our trenches and completely buried a man.  The very next blew him out again.  We were all pleased to see the poor fellow alive again, but he looked a wreck.  Another experience befel us when the enemy got down a bit of gully within twenty yards of our trenches.  Of all the bombs they threw, not one did any harm to our fellows.  After they had had their turn, ours came, for at night we dug further trenches further back and then retired to them.  At daybreak we could see the enemy breaking into the trenches which we had vacated.  They little thought they were creeping to their last place, because before we had retired we laid some mines, and after they had all got into our trenches, the engineers "pulled the string and the figure moved."  the mines went off and blew the enemy to pieces.  One of them was blown into our trenches.

29th December 1914