What Happened to Me at 'Plug Street', by Rifleman Aubrey Smith, MM | 4 February 1915 | Episode 57

Quite early in the war drafts to the fighting regiments were sometimes allowed to make their acquaintance with the front line by easy stages. Rifleman Aubrey Smith of the London Rifle Brigade spent his first days in a barn near Ploegsteert (`Plug Street') on fatigue duty. He survived four years of the war and, in simple, telling language, recorded his day to day adventures. The bewildered recruit was to become the hardened veteran, but here the wonder of new impressions is set down with an observer's genius.