War Diary Entry: 8th July 1916

An absolutely peaceful day around our head quarters, there was only one short burst of shelling lasting 5 minutes at 5pm. It blew a bit of the railway line onto our dugout. They shelled Hamel steadily most of the day putting 3 shells into the roof of the KOSBs but beyond breaking a beam little damage was done.

The 86^th Brigade relieved us during the afternoon. They did not take over our head quarters but are wisely having theirs just behind Mesnil. The relief was finished about 8.30pm and the whole brigade came back into the huts in Acheux Wood except the MG company which remains behind at Englebelmer. The mess and my bedroom are in a cottage in the village. Brand has been applied for to go as GSO2 of the Gds Divn. Brand , Perse and I got back here about 10pm in a car, the road was not shelled at all the whole way.

War Dairy Entry: July 7th 1916

Very heavy rain this morning. I met De Lisle at Mesnil Station at 10am to find some new brigade head qrs. No one can get to our present ones except in fear of their lives. The hd qrs themselves are all right except that they are too small, but every approach is incessantly shelled. He wanted us to go into a house in Mesnil near the station, a spot that is always shelled, but he eventually allowed us to establish them in a bank to the W of the village. They were shelling the station while we were waiting for him close by. We then went on round the trenches, and I got wet to the skin. 

They started shelling Thiepval Wood before 6am and went on putting them in till after 10am, metal was flying everywhere. Sometime during this, they turned the 49^th Divn out of the small bit of the German system of trenches they still held in front of the wood. Thank heaven I don’t live in the wood but can sit and watch it across the stream. 

All sorts of people looked in today. We are being relieved tomorrow by the 86^th Bde and are going back for a rest (10 days with luck). 

One of our aeroplanes fell in Aveluy Wood this morning about 500 yds behind this spot, it was flying very low at the time, I did not see it.

Editor's note

Usually my job is to transcribe CHT Lucas' handwriting (being a teacher helps there...) and marvel at the matter-of-fact way he recounts the grand issues and minutiae of trench life. However, today's diary entry made a great impact on me,,, partly I think because of the partial break from the 'stand back / observer ' style of previous writing.

The talk of 'pools of blood' is his first real emotional engagement with the casualty issue and is followed up by personal comments about the partly insane soldier of the SWB and the man in the Borders 'throwing a fit'. CHTL just doesn't do such individual observations so maybe even he is beginning to be affected by the '2150 casualties' and the '13 days' under heavy shelling...

The knowledgeable will realise the significance of the last sentence... only 250 men left of the near 1000 strong SWBs who made up their battalion on the 1st of July. 

War Dairy Entry: July 6th 1916

The Inniskilling patrol which went out to capture the machine gun last night found that it had been removed and came back empty-handed. The parties out digging the trench last night had a fairly rotten time, I gather, the trench is nearer the German line than our own by a good deal. They made a lot of noise getting out and brought on gun and rifle fire. I was up in the trenches early this morning and saw pools of blood in places, they also don’t appear to have got down very deep, judging from a distance. You cant get out to it by day. 

It was quite quiet everywhere while I was going round. The men looked very tucked up; going round the trenches this morning I spoke to one man in the SWB who was partly insane, and later on I passed a man in the Borders throwing a fit. This is not to be wondered at as on the 1^st the Bde had about 2150 casualties and most of the men have been under heavy shellfire for 13 days. 

There has been the usual noise going on round here all day. Monkhouse turned in to lunch, they are going to make him a brigadier. Raikes and Perse went round the reserve trenches this morning to see if they could find some place to put the SWB. A draft of 200 has arrived for the brigade, so that the SWB can now be withdrawn from the firing line. They found some RA quarters which have just been evacuated N of Mesnil which will easily accommodate their 250 men.

War Diary Entry: 5th July 1916

Heavy shelling again all day today, Thiepval Wood was given a bit of a rest, but Hamel, Mesnil and Martinsant got it pretty hot, also Aveluy Wood. Our Hd Qrs are just in the centre between all these places and has so far been overlooked. 

The patrol of the Inniskillings went out to the mill last night and found it unoccupied, they crawled about another 150 yards up the marsh and came on a machine gun firing through a hedge about 10 yards away, they watched it for a bit and then came away. They are going out again tonight with a party to try and capture it. The marking out of the new trench was not completed last night as they were very late starting work. Tonight two RE coys and 2 Pioneer battalions are going out to dig it. 

Various people were in here during the day arranging for the work. About 5pm a car with two staff officers in was hit by a shell about 300 yards down the road from our hd qrs. The shell burst under the car & smashed it up, but the 2 officers got out and walked away a bit shaken. I don’t know who they were.

War Diary Entry: July 4th 1916

Thiepval Wood again bombarded both morning and afternoon it must be getting a regular shambles. They put a lot of 5.9 shells Hamel during the day all round the KOSB & SWB hd qrs. An exceptionally heavy rain storm came on just after midday ,it kept on raining most of the afternoon. All the trenches were washed out and fell in in many places; in the low part of Hamel all the trenches cellars and dugouts were flooded. 

An order came from the Army (we are now in the reserve Army since 2 days) that the line had to be pushed out in front tonight, Fuller & Bayley came up about 6pm with 2 RE subalterns on their way up to mark it out, the 2 subalterns have a pleasant night in store for them. We received information during the afternoon that the 49^th Divn were going at 2am tomorrow morning to try and clear the germans out of the lengths of trench which the 49^th hold on the high ground, but which the Germans occupy down by the river end. They were also going for the Hill & Mound. After this rain the marsh will be absolutely impassable so they will not be able to reach them. We have offered to take on the Mill (a very small ruin in the marsh) instead of them, & are sending out half a dozen men to reconnoitre it tonight. 

A 5.9” shell landed full in our office at Englebelmer yesterday laying it level with the ground. All our people were out at the time.

Letter to Mother: July 4th 1916

Dearest Mother

You are right. Just north of river. Don’t expect I shall see John, he will probably go S of us, where they seem to be doing very well. Hope Raymond is through with his operation by now and getting on all right, also that Peggy is recovering,.

Yr loving son

Cuthbert

War Dairy Entry: 3rd July 1916

It was the intention at one time to withdraw the 29^th Divn into reserve to recoup, but it has now been decided to withdraw the 31^st instead.The 4^th Divn are taking over the 29^th Divn line as far up as Broadway, & we are to hold from there to the Ancre, the 88^th Bde on the left & 87^th on the right, 86th bde in reserve in Englebelmer. 

De Lisle came up this morning and I went all along our frontline with him. On the right down by the marsh the trenches are blown about a good deal & trees are lying across them in several places, on the left they are not so bad, but all the trenches want deepening, revetting & traversing. The Germans again bombarded Thiepval Wood once or twice, & seemed to be putting in some gas shell. It is just across the Ancre above our hd qrs so we get all the benefit of the noise, but very few of the shells. All our machine guns are laid on the Bosch trenches in front of this wood. We are being left entirely alone by them at present.