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Tuesday 28 June 2011

War Diary Entry: 28th June 1916

Last night’s wire cutting and raiding parties were not a great success anywhere. The Germans seem to have expected it as all the parties were fired upon, and so came back. At 3am this morning they put about 20 shells round our headquarters, one fell in the middle of the road and knocked out some gunners, we had no casualties in the brigade. Pouring with rain this morning, the trenches will be in a filthy state; it cleared up during the afternoon. Shelling went on as usual all day, it doesn’t sound very much from here as we only hear the big guns going over, but it is pretty noisy in the firing line. 

We have cleared away nearly all their wire in the front system of trenches. They do not reply very much.  The 15” guns and 190lb trench mortars have layed Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt level with the ground, and the trenches round Thiepval are blotted out, but the trenches in front of us are not so badly damaged yet. Went onto a conference at the divn at midday, a car came and took Williams and myself in . Afterwards I went & saw the KOSBs & Borders in Acheux Wood & got back here about 2.30pm. Got a message from the divn at about 3pm to say that operations were postponed 48 hours (I believe because of the weather) so the attack does not start tomorrow. 

Went for a walk with Cookson after tea,  we went and watched one of the 15” guns firing, you can see the shell in flight for quite a long way; then we went on to have a drink with Gillon at his prisoners camp, between here and Foxeville. Just as we were getting back the Bosch put a few 5.9” shells into Englebelmer so we hung about outside til it was over.

4 comments:

  1. dam this is hard to copy

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    1. Dear anonymous
      Sorry about it being hard to copy...I would be happy to send you a WORD copy when I return from India next week. For what purpose do you require a transcript?
      Regards
      Steve

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  2. Thank you so much for posting this - I beleive that my Grand-uncle was one of the gunners that he talks about, who was killed when the shell fell in the middle of the road. I have established that he was killed on 28th June 1916 & that he is burried in Blighty Valley Cem. James Hayes of X 12th Field Artillery. I was so pleased that I was able to find out where he now lies but to actually find out HOW he died is marvellous. Do you know the exact area where this happened?
    On seeing this we have arranged to visit the grave during the first week of Nov & we shall be the first members of his family to be able to do this . My grandad would have been so proud to think that someone is visiting his brothers grave. THANK YOU so much. Geraldine.

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    1. Dear Geraldine
      Thanks for your comment. I believe that the Brigade HQ was in the village of Englebelmer (often these might be in deep dugouts or house cellars with strengthened ceilings). There is no additional information about the gunners who were hit, save that CHTL does refer to 15" guns elsewhere in this diary entry.
      I'm so glad that the blog has helped even if in a small way and hope that your family's visit to the battlefield is a memorable one.
      Best regards
      Steve

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