and now we cover almost two years of fighting in 1300 words so i can finish the story!

Corporal Simonson's Christmas wish for a quick peace turns out to be no kind of prophecy. The war is still raging a year later, and the battalion is still in France. They have fought at Arras and Ypres and Passchendaele, been shot and shelled and gassed. Lt Fiske is invalided out of the army and Corporal Simonson is promoted to lieutenant, only to be killed during an attempt to break through the Hindenburg Line, the stronger, shorter line to which the Germans retreated in early 1917.

Davies is shot in the arm and catches shrapnel in both legs again. Powell is shot twice in the shoulder. Naylor acquires a pair of rubber boots to deal with the flooding in the trenches but steps on a piece of barbed wire and punctures not only the bottom of the boot but also the bottom of his foot. Captain Harris is shelled, loses his arm at the elbow, and is sent home. Captain Bradford is hit by shrapnel as a shell explodes behind him, catching him in the back and shoulders and nearly taking off his head.

( What's left of the battalion celebrates Christmas 1917 in a reserve trench )

words: 1384
total words: 51,186
note: if anyone knows how to pronounce "passchendaele" or "thiepval", please let me know.