Pte Edgar Boxford, a Maulden man belonging to the Bedfordshire Regiment, in a very interesting letter says: "I have by now got accustomed to the sound of the guns, and can even sleep when the shells are flying overhead and machine-guns are chattering.
"I shall never forget the sensation the first time I entered the trenches or when, in the evening, I had my first glimpse of 'No Man's Land' - a veritable devil's playground. Those feelings, however, soon pass away, and one settles down to the serious business in hand.
"I have on several occasions since been 'over the top' at night with working parties for wiring etc, but must say I feel greatly relieved when back once again behind our own parapet. Lights or flares are used freely by both sides at night as a safeguard against a surprise etc, and they can be seen several miles behind the firing line.
"The dug-outs we rest in when not on duty are not elaborate ones, such as we read the Germans make, and we are glad to make use of our ground sheets.
"As for rats, we find them wherever we go - be it in the trenches or in our billets behind the firing line. I am sure the Pied Piper of Hamelin's historic round-up of rats was not altogether a success, or they would not be so plentiful. Even when on the fire-step at night one turns suddenly at times only to find that it is a rat nibbling away at something or scurrying past you bent on some important business, but they are pests nevertheless. One night recently, when in my billet (an empty barn), a rat ate the greater part of my next day's bread ration.
"Before leaving England we were advised not to drink any water which had not been boiled or otherwise purified and that was good advice, too.
"The farmhouses and buildings are built in the form of a square with a kind of courtyard in the centre, and in the centre of this yard is a huge sunken pit into which all the stable manure is dumped, and as this without doubt is not emptied more than once or twice a year the smell is none too pleasant.
"Aeroplanes are not very much to the fore out here, and that is one branch of the service where we more than hold our own. When Fritz's machines do make an appearance I have notices that they are usually up at an immense altitude - too high, in fact, to make good observations. Ours, on the other hand, to me appear to be a bit too venturesome at times when flying over the enemy's lines, and there follows behind the machines, both of our own and those of the enemy, a long line of small round balls of smoke - either snowy white or black - the result of shelling by anti-aircraft guns. So far I have not seen a single machine 'wizzed'."
[The Luton News: Thursday, January 11th, 1917]