The air was balmy and spring-like and there was no shelling in the front line.

The bell was rung and the congregation began to collect.

I went over to the church and there I found, lying wrapped in a blanket on a stretcher beside the building, the body of a poor lad of the 2nd Division.

It could not be buried until word had been received from his battalion.

I got some of the men to carry the stretcher in and lay it in the aisle.