Search This Blog

Saturday, 27 August 2011

Personal Diary Entry: August 27th 1916

Began carrying gas up tp our sector between Warwick Farm & the Haymarket.

Personal Diary Entry: August 26th 1916

Went up to the trenches at 4am with Handress Lloyd and Morris to look at the work in Wieltje. The Inniskillings had not completed their full amount. Fuller & Bayley came in in the morning. Bayley again dined & slept last night. Harrington (Maj Gnel) came to see me this afternoon. West (left group RA) dined. They are starting to turn 4 gun batteries into 6 again to economise officers, this rather upsets the gunners.

Personal Diary Entry: August 25th 1916

As the defences of Wieltje have got to be pushed on the Inniskillings were turned on tonight to dig a new trench to connect B.10a with Monmouth trench. Yesterday morning a German got into the front line trench held by the left coy KOSBs about 9am. The line is very thinly held owing to lack of men, and there are some holes in the breastwork where it has been blown down by shells. The man was removing his clothes and apparently intended to put on a sergts greatcoat which was lying near. He was flushed by a passing signaller who had no arms; the German escaped whilst the signaller went for assistance. One of our aeroplanes had to land behind the german lines in our front this afternoon.

Personal Diary Entry: August 24th 1916

Started round with De Lisle at 6am and got back at midday. He was in a good temper. He distributed tasks but evaded all the difficulties by turning everyone on to dig a new drain behind the firing line. This isn't much help when the parapet is blown down and wants immediate repairs.

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Personal Diary entry: August 23rd 1916

Went round the trenches 5am with Going and Raikes. Conference of COs at 10am. De Lisle came in just before we started and said no work had been done in the line, & that he would come round tomorrow and allot tasks to companies. Bayley dined and slept.

Monday, 22 August 2011

Personal Diary Entry: August 22nd 1916

Nothing unusual

Personal Diary Entry: August 21st 1916

Went round the trenches with Welch starting 5am. The recent rain had not had much effect . Met De Lisle on the way back. A deserter reported a few days ago that the Germans had still got a lot of gas cylinders in their trenches so this afternoon we knocked their trenches about for 2 hours with shells of all sizes up to 9”. They damaged ours a bit in return. We had 5 killed and 2 wounded. Bayley lunched, dined and spent the night.

Personal Diary Entry: August 20th 1916


Dined with Handress Lloyd at the Inniskilling hd qrs in Ypres prison. Gillan came too. A quiet day, hardly any shelling. A KOSB patrol brought in 2 dead Germans from in front of their wire.
The 4th Divn and 4th Canadian Divn are going to take over the Canadian Corps line to allow them to go south. This means that all our 3 divns will be in the line the whole time, and no one in Corps reserve.

Personal Diary Entry: August 19th 1916

Took over the line from the 86th Bde after dark. They relieved the 88th Bde in the right sub sector, & the 88th Bde went back into reserve. Brand, Gillan & I went up to Ypres in a car about 9pm. There has been a good deal of rain the last 2 days.