Writing on April 27th, 1917, to parents Alfred William and Mary Firmin, of 21 Dunstable Road, Luton, their eldest son, Gunner Alfred Firmin, serving with the Lincolnshire R.F.A. in France, described what he found when an abandoned German position was taken over.

He wrote: "We are again at it, and are in action in a different part of the line to any we have been in before. It is especially interesting as the Boches evacuated this place only a week ago. They must have had a grand time here before we bumped them out of it.

"Of course, they destroyed a great many things before they retired, but they had to leave a great many 'comfy' places almost untouched. We (the telephonists) have a very decent place with beds, tables, chairs, stoves and cooking utensils, so you can guest we are having a 'bon' time.

"Yesterday a few of us had a stroll round 'our' town. We were astonished with what we saw. One place was marked 'Kommandeur' and we found it composed of four cellars under different houses, and reinforced with concrete. The walls were papered and the ceiling and supports painted, and each place was provided with beds, stoves etc, and one place was full of broken wine and beer bottles and a few bottles of Appollinaria water, which you can guess came in handy.

"In other cellars we found coppers which had evidently been used as soup kitchens for the infantry. Most of the coppers had holes knocked in them, but we found two fine ones quite untouched, so they also came in very handy.

"Altogether I think this is about the most interesting part of the line we have ever held. The weather, I am glad to say, has been very decent the last few days, and if it keeps so we shall have a fairly good time."

[Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: May 5th, 1917]