Grenade!

There's a certain technique to clearing a trench system of the enemy. BATUS was one of the few places that had a trench system safe enough for us to practice doing this with live ammunition.

I suspect this means that it wouldn't actually be regarded as safe to do it for real.

I was the fourth in line as we edged our way down the trench. We got to a corner. The No.1 pulled the pin on his grenade and lobbed it round the corner.

The explosion when it came was not the stuff of Hollywood. A dull thud and a bit of smoke was all we were treated to.

The Safety staff were stood up at ground level watching our progress.

"Speed. Speed. You've got to be faster than that.............."

The No.2 leant round the corner and emptied a full magazine on automatic into the trench. Then he dropped to the floor and the rest of us ran over him to the next corner.

The next corner bent to the right. The No.3 pulled the pin on his grenade.

Hands up here who's any good at the throwing with their left hand?

No I didn't think so.

The No.3 wasn't either.

The grenade ended up outside the trench.

The safety staff ended up inside the trench.

Very quickly.

My how we laughed.

For those who want to know the proper way of doing it there's a few pointers here - you know just in case you ever find yourself needing to chuck a hand grenade.