An Invitation To Dinner

The 4th August 1916 dawned with men of 4th Suffolk returning from a wiring party into no-mans-land.
Tired and hungry, the men returned to the trenches before first light to get cleaned up. They had spent the early hours banging in iron pickets, muffled with sandbags to bolster the defences opposite their positions.
Throughout the day, training continued at Mericourt with gas drills taking place in the afternoon. Around 3.00pm, a message was received from 2nd Suffolk to ask the officers to come to dinner. In the pre-war era, such an occurrence would not have taken place for regimental etiquette - where a regular Battalion invited the Volunteers to dine. However, pleased at not having to cook, a party of 6 officers set off once more to Mericourt for dinner.
Having consumed a fair amount of homemade fruit cake, sent out from England, and bottle of liberated wine, the officers of the 4th Battalion returned to their billets in the early hours. For a brief few hours, Suffolks, regular and territorial, talked of home and of the recent battles past. Regimental tradition and snobbery was forgotten.

---