“Then came the snow. We spent our waking hours crouched around an old valor stove. Not being allowed fires by day because of the smoke. At nights we did a three-hour shift each. I spent most of my time by the fire composing letters to Eve. We got several flaps on and on several occasions had to fire at our S.O.S. (Shoot on Sight) task a range of 2,400 yards, unpleasantly close for artillery. During the latter part of our stay, we had Gerry patrols very close to us and often had to grab our weapons and stand by the doors and windows of our house, so little infantry in front of us.”

Diary entry from January 1944 from Sgt Observer Frederick Sidney Williams, 212 Bty, 111 Fd Regt in his family’s memoirs “Our Fred’s War”.